Guide to writing better articles

Overview
Please include here 1-2 introductory sentences regarding the disease state or the topic of the page.

Related Key Words and Synonyms: Please include here any other associated keywords for the title of the article as well as any other abbreviations associated with the title of the article. You can also include any other spellings of the article.

Epidemiology and Demographics
Include information here regarding the incidence of the disease and the distribution of the disease among men and women and different races. You can also include the distribution of disease in first world second world in third world countries.

Risk Factors
Include here any known risk factors for the development of the disease.

Screening
Included here any tests that are routinely undertaken to detect the disease state. An example would be checking the blood pressure in both arms to assess for the risk of coarctation of the aorta or aortic dissection.

Pathophysiology & Etiology
Include here all that is known regarding the underlying pathophysiology the disease. If there are multiple causes, list all the multiple etiologies of the diseases as well.

Molecular Biology
As our understanding of the underlying molecular basis of disease expands please include your any text regarding the molecular biology associated with the disease state.

Genetics
Our understanding of the underlying genetic basis of the disease continues to expand as well. Please include here any studies that relate underlying genetics to the disease state.

Natural History
It is rare to observe the natural history of disease in modern medicine. You may need to search for literature from early studies of the disease state to gather information the natural history of disease.

Differential Diagnosis
If the page is regarding a symptom, please list all the disease states that are associated with that symptom. These disease states can be sorted by organ system or any other system of organization that is appropriate.

History and Symptoms
Please include here all relevant features of the history that are associated with the disease state.

Physical Examination
Please include here all elements of the physical examination that are relevant to the disease state. There is no need to include normal parts of the physical examination.

Appearance of the Patient
Please include it here. Information regarding the overall appearance of the patient. This could include features such as the patient would be "in distress" or "anxious".

Vital Signs
Please include here the pulse and blood pressure as well as the temperature and respiratory rate.

Skin
Include here a description of skin color, a description of skin texture (for example coarse), as well as a description of the skin temperature.

Eyes
Please include your discussion about the sclera and any abnormalities in the pupillary function or other findings related to the eyes.

Ear Nose and Throat
Include here any abnormalities related to the ear nose and throat examination.

Heart
Please include a description of all abnormal heart sounds such as murmurs rubs gallops and heaves.

Lungs
This section should include a description of any abnormal lung sounds or abnormalities on percussion.

Abdomen
This section should include a description of any organomegal, abnormal abdominal sounds or bruits.

Extremities
This section should include examination for clubbing cyanosis and pulses.

Neurologic
If there are any cranial nerve or peripheral nerve abnormalities please include them here.

Electrolyte and Biomarker Studies
Please include your any abnormalities in sodium, potassium, creatinine, BUN, liver function tests, cholesterol, white blood count, hematocrit, or platelet count.

Electrocardiogram
While a text description of any EKG abnormalities is good, please include images related to the EKG abnormality. Please make sure your images are copyleft and not copyright.

Chest X Ray
If there are diagnostic findings on the chest x-ray, please include those here. It is also quite helpful to include an actual chest x-ray image. Please make sure that your images are copyleft and not copyright images.

MRI and CT
If there are diagnostic findings on MRI and CT please include these here. Again, it is also quite helpful to include an actual MRI or CT image. Please make sure that your images are copyleft and not copyright images.

Echocardiography or Ultrasound
While a text description of abnormalities is good, and even better technique is to insert images or even better moving pictures of these abnormalities.

Other Diagnostic Studies
If there is another test other than an imaging study or an electrolyte study or EKG, please include this here.

Risk Stratification and Prognosis
In this section, please include any known risk stratification methods or tools. Also, please include information regarding the short and long Tom term prognosis of the disease state.

Acute Pharmacotherapies
In this section please include acute pharmacotherapies that would be given parenterally or in the early stages of the hospitalization.

Chronic Pharmacotherapies
In this section, please include any pharmacotherapies that would be given chronically to the patient.

Surgery and Device Based Therapy
Please include a description of any surgical or device-based therapies for the disease state.

Indications for Surgery
Include here any standard indications for surgical treatment of the disease.

Primary Prevention
Primary prevention includes those therapies that are utilized to prevent the occurrence of the disease in the first place. Please include those therapies here.

Secondary Prevention
Secondary prevention refers to the treatment of the disease once it has already occurred. Please add any information regarding secondary prevention here.

Cost-Effectiveness of Therapy
Please insert any information regarding cost-effectiveness of the therapy here.

Future or Investigational Therapies
Please include any future or investigational therapies here.

"The Way I Like To Do It ..." Tips and Tricks From Clinicians Around The World
This section is intended for clinicians from around the world to offer their own approach to a variety of disease states.

Suggested Revisions to the Current Guidelines
WikiDoc does contain a living guideline section. The goal of this section is to provide feedback to guidelines committees regarding guidelines recommendations.

Acknowledgements
Please include here your name if you were the original contributor or editor of the page.

Contributors
Place your name here if you contributed to the page. At this point WikiDoc also includes the names of contributors at the bottom of each page.

Size
In general articles should be kept fairly short. If you find that your article exceeds 32kB in size than it is recommended that you break the article into multiple sections with each section linking to another page.

Paragraphs
Similarly, paragraphs should be relatively short to reduce eyestrain, but not too short. Group similar items and sentences together to improve readability. A long paragraph can normally be split up into two or more separate paragraphs with similar themes, as long as the second paragraph gets an introductory sentence to keep the reader on-track, even one as brief as "Other examples abound." Conversely, a one-sentence paragraph is like a cannon-shot during the performance: it attracts so much attention that it had better be good. An entire article that consists of one-sentence paragraphs can normally be consolidated by theme into a few paragraphs.

Headings
Headings help clarify articles and compose the table of contents. Since headers are hierarchical, and some people set their user preferences to number them, you should start with ==Header== and follow it with ===Subheader===, ====Subsubheader==== , and so forth. Yes, the ==Header== is awfully big in some browsers, but that can be fixed in the future with a style sheet more easily than a nonhierarchical article structure can be fixed.

While one may prefer bullet points within a section instead of using sub-headings, bold fonts should not be used. Good HTML practice dictates that headers are marked up as headers. Whether extensive subtopics should be kept on one page or moved to individual pages is a matter of personal judgment. Subheadings should generally be in alphabetical order, especially if they list countries.

Images
The inclusion of images greatly improves the educational content of pages. Please use them liberally.