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In this Journal feature, information about a real patient is presented in stages (boldface type) to an expert clinician, who responds to the information, sharing his or her reasoning with the reader (regular type). The authors' commentary follows.
A 50-year-old white man presented to the emergency room with an 18-hour history of severe right-sided abdominal and flank pain.
Although the list of possible causes of acute abdominal pain is extensive, diagnoses to consider initially include appendicitis, intestinal obstruction, bowel infarction, renal colic, peritonitis, and cholecystitis. Because many of these diagnoses may be life-threatening and require urgent intervention, prompt evaluation of
Commentary
Source Information
From the Pritzker School of Medicine (D.R.C., N.A.C.) and the Department of Medicine (J.D.Y., P.A.R., V.M.A.), University of Chicago, Chicago.
Address reprint requests to Dr. Arora at 5841 S. Maryland Ave., MC 2007, AMB W216, Chicago, IL 60637, or at varora@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu.
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