Generating a differential diagnosis

// under medicine ddx

What’s the differential of x?

1. Common and important causes (if you know them)

2. Functional units (based on sound knowledge and understanding of anatomy and physiology) Making pictures helps.

3. Aetiological sieve

Aetiological sieve

Acquired

Vascular

Inflammatory

• infective

  1. viral

  2. bacterial

  3. fungal

• non-infective

Traumatic/toxic

Autoimmune

Metabolic/endocrine/metastatic

Iatrogenic/idiopathic

Neoplastic

Congenital

Inherited

1. inborn errors of metabolism

Developmental

1. structural malformations

2. tumours

Transplacental disease

E.g TORCH organisms (Toxoplasmosis, Rubella, Cytomegalovirus, Herpes simplex) and Syphillus

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