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DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSTIC PROBLEMS IN PLANT POISONINGS
Author(s) -
Fowler Murray E.
Publication year - 1964
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1964.tb53125.x
Subject(s) - citation , annals , library science , medicine , computer science , history , classics
Plant poisoning rarely produces a clean-cut clinical syndrome. All too frequently a diagnosis of poisoning is made on the basis that nothing else can be found and a poisonous plant is available. It is true that many toxic substances produce clinical signs that cannot easily be differentiated. It is also true that analysis of tissue or stomach contents for a toxic agent may be either impossible or prohibitively expensive. However, if good medical differential diagnostic techniques are utilized, a proper diagnosis can usually be made. A toxic condition should be only one of the possibilities considered when taking a history, observing clinical signs, evaluating laboratory data, and watching the course of a disease. Two clinical situations will be presented to illustrate some problems of differential diagnosis.