Overlooking the Obvious

Overlooking the obvious: a meta-analytic comparison of digit symbol coding tasks and other cognitive measures in schizophrenia.

CONTEXT In focusing on potentially localizable cognitive impairments, the schizophrenia meta-analytic literature has overlooked the largest single impairment: on digit symbol coding tasks. OBJECTIVE To compare the magnitude of the schizophrenia impairment on coding tasks with impairments on other traditional neuropsychological instruments. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE and PsycINFO electronic databa...

Seeing Beyond the Obvious

Sarcoidosis: A Systemic Inflammatory Disease Sarcoidosis is a systemic inflammatory disease characterized by the deposition of noncaseating granulomas in multiple organs, including the lungs, skin, central nervous system, and heart. The diagnosis of cardiac sarcoidosis is important because it confers a poorer prognosis, with an increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias, heart failure, and sudde...

The obvious answer.

In his book titled “Everything Is Obvious. Once You Know the Answer”, Duncan Watts posits that what we value as worthwhile is often determined by chance. He cites the case of the famous painting Mona Lisa that is now considered among the world’s masterpieces, and hangs in a special place in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. For centuries, the Mona Lisa was of no particular interest, and was thought...

Missing the obvious.

Overlooking the abdominal X-ray --the peril of ascariasis.

A young child presented with intermittent bowel obstruction. The abdominal X-ray was not closely examined, and a contrast study was performed that demonstrated multiple tubular filling defects indicative of worms. The patient was treated accordingly. Reviewing the abdominal X-ray demonstrated numerous serpigenous, tubular, soft-tissue densities in gas-filled bowel loops.