Osamah Muwaffag, BVMS, MSc, PhD

lecturer, Department of Internal and Preventive Medicine

College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8229-1232
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Osamah_Aliraqi
Internal Medicine | Part I | 4th year 2019

Clinical Examination and Making a Diagnosis

- Illness:

is the situation of being unhealthy or having poor health and is caused by disease

- Disease :

inability to perform physiologic functions at normal levels even though nutrition and
other environmental requirements are provided at adequate levels

- Traditionally, a disease was defined by:

a specific combination of clinical signs and pathologic and clinicopathologic

abnormalities

A diagnosis is the identification of the disease affecting the animal, and to be complete
should include three parts:

1. Identification of the clinical manifestation of that abnormality produced by the

causative agent classification of the animal’s illness

2. Abnormality of structure or function (the disease) produced by the causative

agent

3. The above two then usually allow identification of the specific cause of the
illness

DIAGNOSTIC METHODS:

1- The Syndrome or Pattern Recognition :

a) The diagnosis is made instantaneously and intuitively in the first few

moments of viewing the animal.

b) In the hands of experienced or well-trained clinicians this method is quick

and accurate.

2- Hypothetico-deductive Reasoning:

Internal Medicine | Clinical Examination and Making a Diagnosis| Dr. Osamah Muwaffag Page | 1
 a) As soon as the client begins to relate the presenting signs, usually
commencing with the key clinical sign

b) the clinician begins to draw up a short list (usually three or four) of

diagnostic possibilities

c) The clinician then begins to ask questions and conduct clinical

examinations that test the hypotheses

3- The Arborization or Algorithm Method:

a) depends on the clinician remembering and being aware of an all-

inclusive list of diagnostic possibilities in the case under consideration.

4- The Database Method

a) is to conduct a complete clinical and clinicopathologic examination of

the animal to acquire a comprehensive animal database.

b) The problems (key signs) in this database are then matched with the
diagnostic database

5- The Key Abnormality Method:

a) This is a more time-consuming

b) requires clinicians to rely on their knowledge of normal structure and

function to select the key abnormality or clinical cue

- This method consists of five steps:

A. Determination of the abnormality of function present

B. Determination of the system or body as a whole or organ affected

C. Determination of the location of the lesion within the system or organ affected

D. Determination of the type of lesion

E. Determination of the specific cause of the lesion

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Clinical Examination of the Individual Animal:

- A clinical examination has three parts:

1. History

2. Animal

3. Environment

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