Book excerpt: A Concise, Symptom-Based Textbook for Diagnosis and Decision Making in Clinical Practice Over the past twenty years, thousands of physicians have come to depend on Yamada’s Textbook of Gastroenterology. Its encyclopaedic discussion of the basic science underlying gastrointestinal and liver diseases as well as the many diagnostic and therapeutic modalities available to the patients who suffer from them was—and still is—beyond compare. This new textbook, Principles of Clinical Gastroenterology, is designed to inform practitioners on the features of the major clinical disorders in gastroenterology and hepatology from the point of view of the clinician observing signs and symptoms of a patient under care and management. It is a practical guide to diagnosis and decision making in clinical practice and provides a rich source of information on diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and liver. Covering the full range of examinations in gastroenterology and hepatology, with extremely timely chapters on patients with dyspepsia, eating disorders, jaundice, hepatitis, cirrhosis, and on screening, Principles of Clinical Gastroenterology gives you easy access to approaches that a clinician might take to common symptoms and signs presented by patients with such disorders. The chapters include the epidemiology, history, signs and symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of the most commonly encountered disorders in gastroenterology and hepatology. This textbook will be an invaluable resource whether you are a gastroenterologist, internist, surgeon, or other clinician who sees patients with gastrointestinal and liver disorders. It should be kept close at hand for frequent consultation.