Unusual Signs and Symptoms in Internal Medicine

Despite the introduction of innovative technologies and accurate laboratory techniques, an adequate anamnesis still remains the most important tool to develop a correct diagnosis. When signs and symptoms described by the patients are unusual, the correct identification of the disease becomes a very hard challenge for the clinicians. This book aims at providing a support in the interpretation of the most unusual signs and symptoms that can be encountered in the clinical practice. Each sign is described in concise way (one sign/one page): a full description of the symptoms as experienced by the patient is given, followed by its clinical meaning, the diagnosis and therapeutic approach. The book collects 30 unusual symptoms that could be encountered by the clinicians.
TABLE OF CONTENT:

• Preface
• An irrepressible desire at eat ice
• An insatiable thirst for icy water
• Fear of drinking water
• Strong Desire for salt
• Onset of cephalea after a hyperproteic meal
• Onset of pain after drinking alcohol
• Loss of taste for cigarettes
• Pain in the tongue during mastication
• Dysponoea occurring in lateral decubitus
• Dysponoea occurring in standing position
• Cephalea and palpitation occurring during micturition
• A syncope at the end of micturition
• A beard-saving syncope
• Dark urine following the first micturition of the morning
• Foamy urine like beer
• Urine that changes colour to back
• Progressive increase in the size of shoes, gloves, and hat
• Inopportune laughter
• Erythema and burning feet
• Onset of pain in a leg with sneezes or coughs
• Pain in both the thighs in a feverish patient
• An annoying burning after a hot bath
• A chronic, widespread, and unrestrainable burning in a young woman
• Silver-coloured Faeces
• A strange yellowish colour in the nails accompanied by lymphoedema
• Bronchial asthma in a subject with dyspepsia and epigastric pyrosis
• Rhythmic joltings and swinging of the head
• Poorly explainable diarrhoea in a patient in treatment with antiplatelet drugs
• Seeing yellow-green halos around objects
• Mental confusion, fever, and dyspoea
• Author
• Reference

Vittorio Gallo ha studiato medicina all'Università degli studi di Torino, dove oggi lavora come professore di . E' specializzato in epatologia e gastroenterologia.