Incidental findings made during diagnosis in patient care

Diagnostic testing can produce medical findings that are unrelated to the individual’s primary reason for approaching the health service (or to the symptoms that prompted a patient to consult a physician) and which were not targeted by the testing in question. Such incidental findings are occurring ever more frequently. This is mainly due to developments in the areas of imaging techniques and genetic research. The range of conditions that can be visualised and investigated greatly exceeds the scope of the primary request.