The Rational Clinical Examination

This systematic review assesses the relative prevalence of viral vs bacterial conjunctivitis in adults and children and evaluates which symptoms or signs are suggestive of a viral vs bacterial etiology.

This Rational Clinical Examination systematic review summarizes studies that examined the accuracy of current methods of blood pressure measurement, including home and office monitoring, compared with ambulatory blood pressure monitoring as the reference standard for diagnosing hypertension in patients not receiving treatment for hypertension.

This Rational Clinical Examination systematic review characterizes the accuracy of clinical and x-ray findings associated with hip osteoarthritis.

This Rational Clinical Examination systematic review summarizes the accuracy of the clinical examination and electrocardiogram for distinguishing patients with vs without cardiac causes of syncope.

This Rational Clinical Examination systematic review characterizes the accuracy of clinical features and bedside tests for predicting difficult endotracheal intubation.

This Rational Clinical Examination systematic review summarizes the accuracy of risk factors, symptoms and signs, and survey instruments for predicting delirium tremens, withdrawal seizures, and clinical severe alcohol withdrawal in hospitalized patients with a history of alcohol use.

This Rational Clinical Examination systematic review summarizes the accuracy of available scoring instruments for diagnosing acute mountain sickness.

This systematic review analyzes 23 cohort studies to assess the accuracy of individual symptoms and physical examination findings for the diagnosis of radiographic pneumonia in children.

This Rational Clinical Examination systematic review summarizes studies that evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of tests for predicting fluid responsiveness in hemodynamically unstable adult patients to better identify patients who would benefit from further fluid administration.

This Rational Clinical Examination systematic review summarizes the diagnostic accuracy of physical examination and laboratory findings for diagnosing infectious mononucleosis in adolescent and young adults.

This Rational Clinical Examination systematic review summarizes the accuracy of symptoms and signs for revealing severe intracranial injury in adults with minor head trauma.

This Rational Clinical Examination examines the accuracy of initial history, physical examination, electrocardiogram, and risk scores combined with the first cardiac-specific troponin for diagnosing acute coronary syndrome in the emergency department.

This Rational Clinical Examination Systematic Review examines the utility of self-report screening instruments for posttraumatic stress disorder among primary care and high-risk populations.

D’Silva and coauthors assess the diagnostic accuracy of symptoms, questionnaires, and studies in the diagnosis of bladder outlet obstruction.

Wood and colleagues assessed the accuracy of symptoms and signs of early HIV infection in an analysis of data from 16 studies (24 745 adult patients). They found that genital ulcers, weight loss, vomiting, and swollen lymph nodes were associated with early HIV infection; however, these findings had limited utility to detect or rule out HIV infection.

In this The Rational Clinical Examination article, Herr and colleagues discuss results of a literature search to evaluate self-report screening instruments to identify generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder.

To prevent complications when thoracentesis is performed to find the cause of pleural effusion, Wilcox and colleagues assessed randomized and observational studies of adults undergoing the procedure that examined diagnostic tests for differentiating exudates from transudates.

To identify the most accurate clinical examination findings for rotator cuff disease (RCD), Hermans and coauthors performed a meta-analysis of 28 relevant studies, extracting data for likelihood ratios of symptoms and signs of RCD or rotator cuff tear, compared with an acceptable reference standard.

To systematically review the accuracy of the clinical examination for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea, Myers and coauthors searched the literature and drew conclusions from 42 studies that used nocturnal polysomnography as the reference standard.