Arthritis of the hip

Instructions for authors
One or two sentences that describes the disease - basically, how to tell an educated lay person what this condition is.

 

Instructions for authors
What are the signs and symptoms?   (Try to be as descriptive as possible) Who is the prototypical patient? What brings him/her to the doctor? What features of the condition help the doctor recognize the condition?
Comment on the importance (ie sensitivity/specificity) of given findings to making this diagnosis. Hone in on findings unique to the condition (pain is ubiquitous in musculoskeletal medicine!). Try to relate the signs and symptoms to the pathology.
 

Instructions for authors
Make special note, please, of “don’t miss this!” things that deserve particular mental attention or prompt referral to a specialist. This section is, in a way, a subsection of “clinical manifestations” but should be listed distinctly.

Instructions for authors
Who gets this? How rare is it? What is the disease burden in various populations of interest?
The goal here is not to inundate with facts (who cares that back pain causes $6,476,400,000 in lost work productivity) but to give a general sense of importance (lost time from work is very costly!). Is this rare or common? If it is rare, what is its impact nonetheless?

Instructions for authors
Simply: from a human biology perspective, what is wrong? (We can assume something hurts or does not work. What’s deeper than that?)
 
Describe the  processes that  have gone awry. To do so best, it may be necessary to describe briefly the normal physiology
 
What is seen in the tissue, either grossly or microscopically? Note whether the finding is a cause or an effect of the condition.  What would be seen at autopsy, for example?
 
Mark speculations as such

Instructions for authors
What diseases have a similar presentation? What diseases have similar causes? What diseases are associated with this one (without necessarily a cause and effect relationship)?

Instructions for authors
What causes the disease? Mention some popular theories if definite cause is not known. Discuss the plausibility of these theories. 

Instructions for authors
What does one see on xrays and other modalities? Try to be as descriptive as possible, and comment on the sensitivity/specificity) of the study. Try to relate the radiographic signs to the pathology and pathophysiology.
How are laboratory test values affected by this condition? Try to be as descriptive as possible, and comment on the importance (ie sensitivity/ specificity) of the study.

Instructions for authors
List here risk factors for this injury(beyond “etiology”). What can be done to prevent this? Is this cost effective? Does it work?

Instructions for authors
Note the treatment options, beginning with (and possibly rejecting) benign neglect. For each treatment, describe the rationale/method for each treatment, and whether it is evidence based.

Instructions for authors
This should list the expected outcomes of treatment if all goes well; the possible complications of treatment; the presentation of untreated disease; and the long term consequences of the injury.

Instructions for authors
Nutritional factors, Psychosocial impact of disease and Economic effects

Instructions for authors
In this section include everything a professor can mumble, without necessarily having evidence to support the assertions

• Random factoids to help students remember important stuff. E.g.: Why are sailors called “limey”? Sailors at sea where prone to scurvy from Vit C deficiency (imagine the toothless deck hand). Once that was known, they were issued limes to eat---to help the collagen cross link
• Clinical pearls
• Favorite facts for exam writers. It would be great if you can compose a question or two for students to ponder.
• Frontier of science - what is coming down the pike from our basic science friends
• What we don’t know

Instructions for authors
For learning and indexing purposes, suggest the key terms associated with this condition.

Instructions for authors
Students, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, must acquire the necessary “knowledge, skills and attitudes” to practice medicine. Obviously, a book concentrates on “knowledge”. Attitudes are perhaps more nebulous and taught implicitly. Skills, on the other hand, can be taught----but perhaps not in a book. Therefore, please list here the skills and competencies related to the knowledge presented above for which students must seek bedside instruction.
This section should also prove useful to for those who want to map this text to a competency based curriculum.