Diagnosing Disease Flashcards
What is palpation?
Palpation is when a parsctitioner uses their hands in order to examine a patients body.
They usually touch and feel body parts in order to look for abnormalities and to detect any pain, this is in order to diagnose disease and illness.
How do you take blood pressure?
Blood pressure is measured by a sphygmomanometer which consists of a stethoscope, a cuff, a dial, a pump and a valve.
The cuff is placed around the arm to restrict the blood flow, when the cuff is released the pulse beats and the blood pressure is recorded.
The normal blood pressure is from 80 up to 120.
What is percussion?
Percussion is where you tap body parts with fingers hands or using a small instrument.
This is done to determine the size and consistency of body organs and to detect any abnormal fluid in body areas.
How do you test somebody’s reflex’s?
Testing reflex’s detects abnormalities in the nervous system.
Practitioners usually use a reflex hammer to test for deep tendon reflexes.
They can be used to test knew reflexes where the practitioner would look for a knee jerk.
How can computers be used for medical diagnosis?
To access practitioners data bases
Store patient related data.
Family history.
Diagnosis of disease.
Monitoring equipment.
Medical imaging technique - CT scan/X-Ray
Critical patients who need to be constantly monitored through the computer (heart/pulse rate)
What is a stethoscope?
A medical device used for listening to internal sounds of the human body.
An example of a body part would be heart or lungs.
It’s also commonly used when taking a measurement of blood pressure.
How does asking his patients questions and getting them to describe their symptoms help the GP?
It leads the GP to a diagnosis.
It allows them to explore medical and family history.
The problem can then be clarified.
The GP can then prescribe and give the most suitable and effective treatment.
How do you take a temperature?
To take a temperature you use a thermometer, although for an accurate reading you must read the manufactures instructions before use and clean it.
For adults you place it in your mouth for around 30 seconds until reading appears.
Normal temperature is 37 degrees anything above 39 could indicate infection as they raise your body temperature.
For children it’s placed under armpit.
