Does this patient have COVID-19? A practical guide for the internist.
Intern Emerg Med
; 15(5): 791-800, 2020 Aug.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-343413
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently causing a pandemic and will likely persist in endemic form in the foreseeable future. Physicians need to correctly approach this new disease, often representing a challenge in terms of differential diagnosis. Although COVID-19 lacks specific signs and symptoms, we believe internists should develop specific skills to recognize the disease, learning its 'semeiotic'. In this review article, we summarize the key clinical features that may guide in differentiating a COVID-19 case, requiring specific testing, from upper respiratory and/or influenza-like illnesses of other aetiology. We consider two different clinical settings, where availability of the different diagnostic strategies differs widely outpatient and inpatient. Our reasoning highlights how challenging a balanced approach to a patient with fever and flu-like symptoms can be. At present, clinical workup of COVID-19 remains a hard task to accomplish. However, knowledge of the natural history of the disease may aid the internist in putting common and unspecific symptoms into the correct clinical context.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pneumonia, Viral
/
Coronavirus Infections
/
Internal Medicine
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Etiology study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Intern Emerg Med
Journal subject:
Emergency Medicine
/
Internal Medicine
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S11739-020-02377-1
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