ABC of Emergency Differential Diagnosis

Francis Morris, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, UK. Lead editor of ABC of Clinical Electrocardiography. He is the Clinical Director of the Chest Pain Unit in Sheffiled and has written four book on aspects of emergency medicine. He is a regional representative of the British Association of Emergency Medicine. His main research interests are the management of chest pain, DVT and pulmonary embolus. Alan Fletcher, B Med Sci(Hons), MB ChB, MRCP, FFAEM. Appointed Consultant in Acute General Medicine and Emergency Medicine in 2004, Alan has clinical responsibilities in the Emergency Department and Medical Assessment Units. He is Sheffield Teaching Hospitals' Clinical Lead for Acute Medicine, Training Programme Director for Acute Medicine in the South Yorkshire Deanery, and Foundation Programme Director. Apart from an active teaching responsibility, he has research interests in the assessment of Nurse Practitioner competence and the value of acute medical admission.

• Contributors viiPreface viii1 Unconsciousness and Coma 1Roger Dalton2 Calf Pain 5Francis Morris and Alan Fletcher3 Chest Pain – Cardiac 9Nicki Doddridge4 High Fever 13Rachel Foster5 Vaginal Bleeding 18Sian Ireland and Karen Selby6 Transient Weakness 22Carole Gavin7 Abdominal Pain – Epigastric 26Duncan Drury8 Acute Headache 30Tom Locker9 Acutely Painful Joint 34Rachel Tattersall10 Chest Pain – Pleuritic 37Claire Gardner and Kevin Jones11 Dizziness 41Scott Davison12 The Intoxicated Patient 48Sue Croft13 The Shocked Patient 52Arun Chaudhuri14 Palpitations 57Charles Heatley15 Low Back Pain 60Richard Kendall16 Acute Confusion 64Steve Goodacre17 Shortness of Breath 68Kevin Jones and Claire Gardner18 Collapse of Unknown Cause 72Peter Lawson19 Abdominal Pain 76Suzanne Mason and Alastair PickeringIndex 81