ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION A history is taken from patients in order to make a diagnosis. Indeed, history taking should permit us to construct a reasonably accurate diagnosis or differential diagnosis in over 90% of cases. Clinical examination may subsequently confirm either normality or the suspected diagnosis, but only occasionally elicits anything unexpected. If, at the end of history taking, a differential diagnosis has not been formulated, clinical examination alone is unlikely to shed light upon the pathological problem and further history taking followed by investigation is necessary.
