Presentation and diagnosis of patients with acute abdominal pain: comparisons between Leeds, U.K. and Akershus county, Norway.

Geographical variation in clinical presentation may be a key obstacle to accurate diagnosis of patients with acute abdominal pain. This paper studies two series of patients presenting to hospital with an "acute abdomen"; 552 patients from Leeds, England and 398 patients from Akershus, Norway. The causative disease patterns and detailed clinical presentation are compared and contrasted (where appropriate) with a larger series of 6,097 patients under study by the World Organisation of Gastroenterology. Finally, the report outlines the results of implementing automated (computer-aided) diagnostic systems both in Leeds and Akershus, and the effects of adopting a structured case history form for data-recording when the patient is first seen.