What Is Differential Diagnosis Mean

The distinguishing of a disease or condition from others presenting with similar signs and symptoms.

What is differential diagnosis mean. How will my provider make a differential diagnosis. Your doctor must differentiate between these to determine the actual diagnosis and appropriate treatment plan. Most differential diagnoses include a physical exam and a health history. Differential diagnosis noun a list of the common causes of a primary symptom.

Differential diagnostic procedures are used by physicians to diagnose the specific disease in a patient or at least to eliminate. Definition of differential diagnosis. It s based off of the facts obtained from your symptoms medical history basic laboratory. A differential diagnosis is used to help diagnose physical or mental health disorders that cause similar symptoms.

In medicine a differential diagnosis is the distinguishing of a particular disease or condition from others that present similar clinical features. A differential diagnosis is a list of possible conditions or diseases that could be causing your symptoms. The process of weighing the probability of one disease versus that of other diseases possibly accounting for a patient s illness. Wiktionary 0 00 0 votes rate this definition.

Differential diagnosis noun the process of determining which disease from a set of possible candidates is causing a. This process can be divided into six steps. Differential diagnosis is the bread and butter of our task as clinicians patients come into the office seeking relief from broad symptoms such as depressed mood or fatigue and clinicians must consider which of all the disorders in dsm could account for those symptoms. The differential diagnosis of rhinitis a runny nose includes allergic rhinitis hayfever the abuse of nasal decongestants and of course the common cold.

A differential diagnosis means that there is more than one possibility for your diagnosis. During a health history you ll be asked about your symptoms lifestyle and previous health problems. It involves making a list of all possible. Differential diagnosis ensures that doctors consider all possibilities before they make a diagnosis for a patient s illness.

Instead the diagnosis is based on your medical history and your symptoms. Rule out malingering and factitious disorder. Medical diagnosis diagnosis based on information from sources such as findings from a physical examination interview with the patient or family or both medical history of the patient and family and clinical findings as reported by laboratory tests and radiologic studies.