Published 24 April 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1312
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1312

Practice

Diagnosis in General Practice

Diagnosis using "test of treatment"

¹ Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, Department of Primary Health Care, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF

Tests of treatment are commonly used when the diagnosis is uncertain, but can have pitfalls. The accompanying article (doi:10.1136/bmj.b1218) gives an example of how test of treatment can be used

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Though ideally we should have a clear diagnosis before starting treatment, such certainty is not always possible. Sometimes this uncertainty can be resolved by using the treatment as the test that confirms the diagnosis.¹ For example, if we are unsure if a patient’s airway obstruction has a reversible element, a trial of steroids can test this: a sufficient response is then considered evidence of reversibility. At other times the test of treatment is not planned, but the failure to respond to treatment as expected leads to a rethink of the diagnosis. In this brief review we discuss different uses of the "test of treatment," its reliability as a diagnostic tool, and how its use might be improved (for a specific example of its use, see the accompanying article on chronic cough²).

As illustrated in figure 1, a "test of treatment" is one strategy for the final stage of . . . [Full text of this article]

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Test of time

Susanna C Almond and Nick Summerton
BMJ 2009 338: b1878. [Extract] [Full Text]

Chronic cough in adults

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BMJ 2009 338: b1218. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Almond, S. C, Summerton, N. (2009). Test of time. BMJ 338: b1878-b1878 [Full text]  
• Barraclough, K. (2009). Chronic cough in adults. BMJ 338: b1218-b1218 [Full text]  

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