Common Diagnostic Tests: A New Manual for the Clinician

Excerpt

A series of articles on the proper use and accurate interpretation of diagnostic tests has been appearing in our Diagnosis and Treatment section since January 1986. The tests considered have not been high-cost, technically difficult ones that can be carried out and interpreted only by subspecialists; they are tests used widely and routinely by all clinicians throughout medicine. This series of articles emerged from the Blue Cross-Blue Shield Medical Necessity Project, but they have been published in this journal only after a thorough peer-review process carried out by the journal alone. Thus, these papers reflect current expert judgment in the