ABSTRACT
Chest diseases present with a limited number of symptoms. It is, therefore, essential that the chest or general physician is vigilant in knowing the potential significance of these symptoms; their cause may range from minor everyday illness to the much more sinister or rare condition. It is self-evident that it is unreasonable to expect physicians to be able to arrive at rare diagnoses immediately upon the presentation of very common symptoms, since, in reality, some of these rare diagnoses may be a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience for the physician. Nevertheless, it is vital that there is a well laid out, methodical approach to investigation of symptoms, so that, by a process of elimination, the correct diagnosis is achieved.
