title: A New Approach to the Diagnosis of Acute Dizziness in Adult Patients.
abstract: Dizziness is a common chief complaint in emergency medicine. The differential diagnosis is broad and includes serious conditions, such as stroke, cardiac arrhythmia, hypovolemic states, and acute toxic and metabolic disturbances. Emergency physicians must distinguish the majority of patients who suffer from benign self-limiting conditions from those with serious illnesses that require acute treatment. Misdiagnoses are frequent and diagnostic test costs high. The traditional approach does not distinguish benign from dangerous causes and is not consistent with best current evidence. This article presents a new approach to the diagnosis of acutely dizzy patients that highly leverages the history and the physical examination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, 1 Deaconess Place, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Electronic address: jedlow@bidmc.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Jonathan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Edlow
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D065635:Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D004244:Dizziness / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D010808:Physical Examination; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D020338:Vestibular Neuronitis / Q000175:diagnosis
keywords: BPPV; Dizziness; Nystagmus; Posterior circulation stroke; Vertigo; Vestibular neuritis