The evaluation of anemia.

"Topics in Primary Care Medicine" presents articles on common diagnostic or therapeutic problems (such as dizziness, pruritus, insomnia, shoulder pain and urinary tract infections) encountered in primary care practice that generally do not fall into well-defined subspecialty areas and are rarely discussed thoroughly in medical school, house staff training, textbooks and journals. Often the pathophysiology is poorly understood and clinical trials to assess the effectiveness of diagnostic tests or therapies may be lacking. Nevertheless, these problems confront practitioners with practical management questions. The articles in this series discuss new tests and therapies and suggest reasonable approaches even when definitive studies are not available. Each article has several general references for suggested further reading. We hope this new series will be of interest and we welcome comments, criticisms and suggestions.