● all sufferers from the condition seek medical help ● the medical services always anticipate the diagnosis ● there is a universally accepted set of diagnostic criteria ● full diagnostic tests are done on every case and results are unequivocal ● all cases are processed by one central medical organization in each population ● information is kept in a form that can be readily transcribed, copied ...

Cancer-related symptoms such cachexia and pain are subjects of a proliferation of assessment tools, diagnostic criteria, and systems for staging, which are notably disparate, and lack agreement on the variables to be measured. Teams of experts have worked diligently to develop consensus definitions of the terms cachexia and cancer cachexia, and these efforts provide the basis to develop agreeme...

" Gen Psychiat/Vol 26, Jan 1972 Diagnostic Criteria for Psychiatric Research/Feighner et a1 5 7 .Diagnostic criteria for 14 psychiatric illnesses (and for secondary deprnssion) along wi th the validating r,*idpnce for these diagnostic cate,/,,ries comes from workers outside ,,ti,. group as weU as from those within; i t consists of studies o f both outpatients and inpatients, o f family studies,...

In October 2002, a workshop was held in Ancona, Italy, to reach a Consensus on the management of Cushing's syndrome. The workshop was organized by the University of Ancona and sponsored by the Pituitary Society, the European Neuroendocrine Association, and the Italian Society of Endocrinology. Invited international participants included almost 50 leading endocrinologists with specific expertise...

Schizophrenia is a complex disorder characterized by an array of symptoms. This heterogeneity has resulted in a lack of consensus regarding diagnostic criteria, etiology, and pathophysiology, and has complicated efforts to devise effective treatments.

Headache disorders recently have been reclassified, and new operational diagnostic criteria assist in making the correct diagnosis. These diagnostic criteria have been accepted worldwide.

It is a great pleasure to introduce the commentaries by Drs Kellow and Quigley on the pros and cons of the new Rome III criteria. Perhaps most of the readership is only familiar with these published diagnostic criteria. However, the Rome Foundation has a larger mission and directive to move the field of functional gastrointestinal (GI) and motility disorders forward through research and educati...