Cardinal symptom list

[blizdale]

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Hey guys,
I was wondering if anyone knew of or had a list of diseases w/ their cardinal symptoms. Sort of like a quick reference. For instance: Pancreatic cancer--presents w/abdominal pain radiating to back, Trousseau's sign, Courvoisier's sign, etc. An excel file of something like this would be ideal.

 

[image187]

I think pancreatic cancer is usually a painless jaundice, did you mean pancreatitis?

 

[glykon]

I think pancreatic cancer is usually a painless jaundice, did you mean pancreatitis?

You're both right:
-cephalic location: progressive onset of painless jaundice+ itching (which can appear before the onset of jaundice); clinical presentation is dominated by rapid and significant weight loss and other nonspecific symptoms for neoplasia
- body/ tail of the pancreas: the pain dominates, but appears in advanced cases; location: epigastric areas but can radiate in the RUQ&LUQ, rarely to the back; nonrelated to food; becomes worse at night; the first signs/symptoms are weight loss/fatigue/other nonspecific-> poor prognosis because it's not that often diagnosed when it's resectable.

To answer the OP's quest, I think one sign/symptom can rarely direct you to one specific disease; in clinical practice it's usually an association of 3/more. For example: pulsus paradoxus can appear in: croup, asthma, COPD and cardiac tamponade. You need to look for other signs/symptoms for the differential.

 

[Charlie Hustle]

Isn't there a "Classic Presentations" section at the end of FA for just this purpose?

 

[blizdale]

Sweet! Thanks Charlie!

 

[OveractiveBrain]

Hey guys,
I was wondering if anyone knew of or had a list of diseases w/ their cardinal symptoms. Sort of like a quick reference. For instance: Pancreatic cancer--presents w/abdominal pain radiating to back, Trousseau's sign, Courvoisier's sign, etc. An excel file of something like this would be ideal.

What you just asked for is "know the patterns and prevalence for every disease in medicine."

its sort of asking "does anyone have way of knowing how to be the ultimate doctor?"

what you might be looking for is the word association found in the back of First Aid...

1. If there is a turtle in the question, its salmonella
2. If there is a rabbit, tuleremia
3. Old man with foul breath...Zenker's Diverticulum
4. Painless jaundice with weight loss.. Pancreatic cancer (or cholangiocarcinoma)

It won't be worth your time studying for step 1, but this guy: Has Free Videos where you can learn the disease presentation, diagnosis, and treatment. its sort of what you want, but it will probably take too long to get what you want out of it without getting too much extra stuff.

 

[Charlie Hustle]

Also, if you have the Anki flash cards software there are several decks devoted to these classic presentations already available for download (so you don't have to waste time making your own).

Agreed, OveractiveBrain. MedEd Online is money - not so much for high yield board review, but it has helped me in my path and clinical courses simply in terms of identifying disease processes and learning how to work up patients. I'm only a second year, but I'm sure I'll be leaning on these videos heavily during my clinical years.