Cautions - SimulConsult

Sometimes assessing a finding is non-trivial, and it is appropriate to have cautions about determining whether the finding is present or absent.

Example to work through

An example is assessing calcium levels in the presence of low serum albumin. Here is a 50 year old woman with oliguria and low serum albumin (Registered users can click the images below to jump into the software; some videos may be helpful in navigating from there):

Oliguria and low albumin (Click the image to jump into the software.)

The top test recommended is the bundle of a comprehensive metabolic panel. Clicking the word Bundle reveals the findings in the bundle, including checking for low serum calcium:

Calcium testing is recommended (Click the image to jump into the software.)

Clicking on the red asterisk near “Calcium low in blood” pops up the following caution:

Caution about calcium (Click the image to jump into the software.)

The error in not knowing about cautions about findings is the “garbage in – garbage out” phenomenon.

This page is part of a series on the Elements of Diagnosis.