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Symptoms and Signs – Differential Diagnosis of Headache
Acute/subacute causes (likely to present in A&E)
Head injury
Meningitis/encephalitis
Subarachnoid haemorrhage, intracranial haemorrhage, cerebral venous thrombosis
Carotid/vertebral artery dissection
Acute angle closure glaucoma
Giant cell arteritis
Pituitary apoplexy
Other causes: increased BP, drugs (e.g. GTN, Ca channel antagonists), infections (bacterial, viral illnesses etc.), electrolyte imbalances (e.g. hyponatraemia),
hyperviscosity syndromes (e.g. polycythaemia)
Chronic/recurrent
increased lntracranial pressure (e.g. space occupying lesion, e.g. tumour/abscess,
hydrocephalus, benign intracranial hypertension) and reduced intracranial pressure
(e.g. post lumbar puncture)

Migraine
Migrainous neuralgia
Tension headache, rebound headache (on stopping analgesics)
Sinusitis
Other causes: cervicogenic (referred from cervical spondylosis), hypnic headache, meningeal infiltration (e.g. malignancy, sarcoidosis), refractive errors, Paget's disease of bone, acromegaly, antiphospholipid syndrome






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Symptoms and Signs – Differential Diagnosis of Foot pain
Bone: fracture (calcaneal fracture, metatarsal fracture), osteomyelitis, osteochondritis:, e.g. metatarsal head (Freiberg's disease) and navicular (Kohler's disease), tumours
Deformities (e.g. flat feet), strain (muscular, ligamentous strain)
Joints: septic arthritis, gout, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis
Neurological: L4/L5/S1 root pain, Morton's metatarsalgia (plantar nerve neuroma), tarsal tunnel syndrome
Periarticular: plantar fasciitis, tendonitis (e.g. Achilles tendon, peroneal tendon, tibialis posterior), bursitis (e.g. retro and infracalcaneal, interMTP)
Skin: cellulitis, warts, corns, callosities
Vascular: ischaemia, ulcers (see Digital gangrene)

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Symptoms and Signs – Differential Diagnosis of Folate deficiency
Drugs: phenytoin, trimethoprim, sulfasalazine
Increased Demand: pregnancy/lactation, malignancy, chronic inflammation, chronic haemolytic anaemia, haemodialysis
Reduced Intake: alcoholics, elderly, anorexia
Reduced Absorption: jejunal disease, e.g. coeliac disease, tropical sprue, Whipple's disease, small intestinal resection
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Symptoms and Signs -Differential Diagnosis of Finger pain
Trauma: fracture, subungal haematocoma
Referred: cervical spondylosis
Other: scleroderma, tumours (bone tumour, glomus tumour)
lschaemia: vasospasm (Raynaud's phenomenon), vasculitis, peripheral vascular
Infection: paronychia, tendon sheath infection, pulp space infection
disease, emboli
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Arthritis: e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, gout
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Symptoms and Signs – Differential Diagnosis of Foot drop
Common peroneal nerve lesion: mononeuritis multiplex, e.g. diabetes mellitus
Injury to the dorsiflexors, compartment syndrome
LS root lesion (radiculopathy), e.g. inter-vertebral disc prolapse
Muscular
Neurological
Rarer: motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke
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