Diagnostic delay (original) (raw)

Diagnostic delay is the time interval between the onset of symptoms and confirmed diagnosis of a disease. For a variety of reasons, including the mitigation of disease severity and financial expense, it is desirable for this delay to be minimized. The importance of reducing diagnostic delay varies between diseases. An example of a high-stakes diagnostic delay is in ischemic stroke, in which the timeframe for delivery of potentially life-saving thrombolytic drugs is limited to the first few hours of the stroke.