We visit the land of diagnostics in our thinking again this month, deciding when a test can really help us by pressing on to make, or exclude, a diagnosis, and when it simply nudges us a bit one way or another (YOU’LL NEED TO FIND LINK - STARTS There’s something unnerving about getting a test result. And is title is ‘Spins and snouts’)

But then we leap away from it, like a young gazelle or enthusiastic neutrophil, to ask the question “Should all infants with delayed cord separation be investigated for leucocyte adhesion deficiency?” [https://adc.bmj.com/content/106/12/1233] You might already guess the answer - nothing in medicine is an all or nothing - except when it is - but it’s an excellent interview and explanation. The other topic takes in the land of spinal surgery and asks if it can help lung function in (some) kids with cerebral palsy…[https://adc.bmj.com/content/106/12/1231.1]