competing diagnoses Assigning Acute onset of Narrowing Confirmation preference pleuritic chest pain of to findings in a woman with differential that SLE and diagnosis, confirm a antiphospholipid selection of diagnosis antibodies with a diagnosis or strategy. small pleural and Additional effusion interpreted validation testing as pleurisy without confirms testing for suspected pulmonary diagnosis embolism but fails to test competing hypotheses Sticking Nephritis in a Anchoring and with a patient with adjustment diagnosis. positive ANA and Inadequate rheumatoid factor. adjustment Fever, arthritis and of a heart murmur differential attributed to SLE in light of and not to new data endocarditis results in a final diagnosis unduly
competing diagnoses Narrowing of differential diagnosis, selection of diagnosis and validation Confirmation Assigning preference to findings that confirm a diagnosis or strategy. Additional testing confirms suspected diagnosis but fails to test competing hypotheses Acute onset of pleuritic chest pain in a woman with SLE and antiphospholipid antibodies with a small pleural effusion interpreted as pleurisy without testing for pulmonary embolism Anchoring and adjustment Sticking with a diagnosis. Inadequate adjustment of differential in light of new data results in a final diagnosis unduly Nephritis in a patient with positive ANA and rheumatoid factor. Fever, arthritis and a heart murmur attributed to SLE and not to endocarditis
nrrheum.2013.103s3.docx