The diagnosis of pulmonary embolus.

In this issue The Western Journal of Medicine begins a new series, "Topics in Primary Care Medicine," that will present articles on common diagnostic or therapeutic problems encountered in primary care practice. These articles will address such frequently occurring problems as dizziness, pruritus, insomnia, shoulder pain and urinary tract infections. These problems usually do not fall into well-defined subspecialty areas and are rarely discussed thoroughly in medical school, house staff training, textbooks and journals. Often the pathophysiology is poorly understood and clinical trials to assess the effectiveness of diagnostic tests or therapies are often lacking. Nevertheless, these problems confront practitioners with practical management questions. The articles in this series will discuss new tests and therapies and suggest a reasonable approach even when definitive studies are not available. Each article will have several general references for suggested further reading. We hope this new series will be of interest and we welcome comments, criticisms and suggestions.