Oxford Handbook of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation

This handbook offers a comprehensive guide to modern clinical medicine, detailing investigative techniques across major specialties. Each chapter covers available investigations, patient preparation, complications, and result interpretation. It starts with a symptom-focused approach, followed by specialty-specific sections.

Investigation of patients with suspected disease has become highly complex, with an ever-expanding plethora of investigative techniques available to clinicians in recent years. As hospitals worldwide become ever more cost conscious, doctors need guidance on which tests to perform and help with interpretation of the results. With major advances in technology there are now thousands of clinical and laboratory tests available forming a key part of the diagnostic process in modern medicine. The Oxford Handbook of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation returns in its fully revised fifth edition. Every chapter has been extensively updated or rewritten, with many new contributors joining the author team. The book reflects major advances in diagnostic medicine and integrates the latest international guidelines and recommendations. With its patient-focused structure - beginning with symptoms and signs, then moving through specialty-based investigations - the handbook remains a unique and practical guide. Compact, accessible, and clinically relevant, it is an essential companion for medical students, resident doctors, specialist nurses, allied health professionals and general practitioners.