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data-apath="/practneurol/24/5/376.atom"><cite class="highwire-cite highwire-cite-highwire-article highwire-citation-bmjj-title clearfix"> <div class="highwire-cite-title">Diagnostic reasoning in challenging cases</div> <span class="highwire-cite-access"><span class="highwire-citation-access highwire-citation-access-check" data-pisa-id="practneurol;pn-2023-003991" data-atom-uri="/practneurol/24/5/376.atom" data-request-view="full"></span></span> </cite> </div> </div> </div> <div class="panel-separator"></div><div class="panel-pane pane-highwire-panel-tabs-container col-narrow-12 clear" > <div class="pane-content"> <div data-panels-ajax-tab-preloaded="jnl_template_bmjj_tab_art" id="panels-ajax-tab-container-highwire_article_tabs" class="panels-ajax-tab-container"><div class="panels-ajax-tab-loading" style ="display:none"><img class="loading" src="https://pn.bmj.com/sites/all/modules/contrib/panels_ajax_tab/images/loading.gif" alt="Loading" title="Loading" /></div><div class="panels-ajax-tab-wrap-jnl_template_bmjj_tab_art"><div class="panel-display panel-1col clearfix" > <div class="panel-panel panel-col"> <div><div class="panel-pane pane-highwire-markup author-affiliates col-narrow-12 author-affiliates-corresp article" > <div class="pane-content"> <div class="highwire-markup"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="content-block-markup" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="contributors"><ol class="contributor-list" id="contrib-group-1"><li class="last" id="contrib-1"><span class="name">Aaron L Berkowitz</span><a id="xref-aff-1-1" class="xref-aff" href="#aff-1"></a></li></ol><ol class="affiliation-list"><li class="aff"><a id="aff-1" name="aff-1"></a><address> <span class="institution">Neurology</span>, <span class="institution">UCSF</span>, <span class="addr-line">San Francisco</span>, <span class="addr-line">California</span>, USA </address></li></ol><ol class="corresp-list"><li class="corresp" id="corresp-1"><span class="corresp-label">Correspondence to</span> Dr Aaron L Berkowitz; <span class="em-link"><span class="em-addr">aaron.berkowitz{at}ucsf.edu</span></span> </li></ol></div></div></div> </div> </div> <div class="panel-separator"></div><div class="panel-pane pane-highwire-markup abstract-with-bc" > <div class="pane-content"> <div class="highwire-markup"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" id="content-block" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><div class="article abstract-view "><span class="highwire-journal-article-marker-start"></span><div class="section abstract" id="abstract-1"><h2>Abstract</h2><p id="p-1">Diagnostic reasoning relies on cognitive heuristics to recognise patterns of symptoms and signs in order to arrive at a diagnosis. These rules of thumb allow us to rapidly diagnose common conditions that present in typical ways. However, they may lead us astray when common conditions present atypically or when a patient has a rare condition or multiple conditions causing their constellation of symptoms, signs, and test results, rather than having a single diagnosis to explain them all. This article describes strategies to help counteract diagnostic pitfalls, to expand diagnostic possibilities and to make diagnostic progress with complex, multielement cases.</p></div><ul class="kwd-group"><li class="kwd">CLINICAL NEUROLOGY</li></ul><div class="section data-availability" id="sec-14"><h2 class="">Data availability statement</h2><p id="p-50">Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study.</p></div><span class="highwire-journal-article-marker-end"></span></div><span class="related-urls"></span></div></div> </div> </div> <div class="panel-separator"></div><div class="panel-pane pane-dfp-pane oas-ads oas-ads-mid pull-right" > <div class="pane-content"> <div id="dfp-ad-mpu-wrapper" class="dfp-tag-wrapper"> <div id="dfp-ad-mpu" class="dfp-tag-wrapper"> <script type="text/javascript"> googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display("dfp-ad-mpu"); }); </script> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="panel-separator"></div><div class="panel-pane pane-custom pane-1" > <div class="pane-content"> <p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/pn-2023-003991" target="_new">https://doi.org/10.1136/pn-2023-003991</a></p> </div> </div> <div class="panel-separator"></div><div class="panel-pane pane-highwire-altmetrics" > <h2 class="pane-title">Statistics from Altmetric.com</h2> <div class="pane-content"> <div data-badge-details="right" data-badge-type="medium-donut" data-doi="10.1136/pn-2023-003991" data-hide-no-mentions="true" class="altmetric-embed"></div> </div> </div> <div class="panel-separator"></div><div class="panel-pane pane-bmjj-jumplinks" > <div class="pane-content"> <div class="highwire-list-wrapper"><div class="highwire-list"><ul></ul></div></div> </div> </div> <div class="panel-separator"></div><div class="panel-pane pane-custom pane-2 permissions-box" > <h2 class="pane-title">Request Permissions</h2> <div class="pane-content"> <p>If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. 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