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Drawing Conclusions in the Example

The first step in the diagnostic process is to draw any definite conclusions from the input. In the example, these are:

Since the chest pain is a symptom with immediate effect and no persistence, the time of the chest pain determines the time of the MI. Not all MI's have chest pain, so this is only true when the MI causes chest pain. The rales are an observation on physical exam, so it does not determine the time extent of the PC. All we know from the rales is that the PC started before now and will end after now. The PCWP is a test which happened now, and thus is just like an observation.



wjl@MEDG.lcs.mit.edu
Fri Nov 3 16:57:00 EST 1995