Diagnostic Reasoning: Approach to Clinical Diagnosis Based on Bayes’ Theorem

Doctors caring for patients in their everyday clinical practice are faced with decisions that are sometimes routine and simple, but may be complicated on other occasions. Sometimes, the decisions may be regarding the choice of investigation or intervention, on other occasions, the decisions may have to be taken regarding a therapeutic option. Either way, clinical decision making is challenging because, these decisions are not only unavoidable but also must be made under uncertain conditions. In this review, an attempt is being made to provide an overview regarding the applications of Bayes’ theorem and clinical decision analysis in arriving at a diagnosis.