Evaluation of abdominal pain: clinicians' performance compared with three protocols.

Clinical findings in ambulatory patients with abdominal pain, presenting themselves to general medical practitioners, were analyzed by three different protocols: an algorithm using a branched-chain logic, a linear discriminant rule, and bayesian analysis. All methods missed some serious diagnoses. None was as effective as the clinician at distinguishing nonspecific abdominal pain (NSAP) from more serious conditions.