In physical therapy, patients arrive at the clinic with a long list of symptoms and a specific mechanism of injury. It is the physiotherapist's job to take this information and formulate hypotheses about what pathology may be affecting the patient. The complete medical history of the patient presented in this case shows an excellent description of the symptoms and what the patient remembers happening when the injury occurred. With this history, you can create an exam plan to make this exam process thorough but effective. One hypothesis that can be made from the patient's report is that she is suffering from cervical radiculopathy, i.e. a lesion of the nerve root. Symptoms describing cervical radiculopathy include: arm pain with dermatomal distribution, pain increased by extension, rotation and/or lateral flexion, possible pain relief from arm positioned overhead, impaired sensation, impaired hand function, no spasticity and no changes in gait or bowel and bladder function (Magee, 2008, p. 142). These symptoms are related to what the patient reported following her injury. He stated that his pain is in the posterolateral upper and lower arm with pain and paresthesia in the thumb and index finger, which is in the dermatomal pattern of cervical root 5 and 6 (C5, C6) (Magee, 2008, p. 25 ). He also reports excruciating pain with extension or rotation of the head to the right. There are several tests and measures that can be performed in a physical therapy visit to rule out certain diagnoses, as well as get closer to a physical therapy diagnosis. First, an observation should be made of the patient standing, walking, and sitting to associate any visible deficits in the patient that might be associated with the... middle of paper... hypothesis and use tests and measures to confirm that hypothesis or bring them in a new direction to find a diagnosis. This patient reported symptoms suggestive of cervical radiculopathy and the special tests mentioned had the ability to indicate that this hypothesis is probably true or to show that other pathologies should be considered. Works Cited Dutton, M. (2012). Dutton's Orthopedic Examination, Evaluation, and Intervention (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Medical. Magee, D. J. (2008). Orthopedic physical assessment (5th ed.). St. Louis, Mo: Saunders Elsevier.Shabat, S., Leitner, Y., David, R., & Folman, Y. (2012). The correlation between Spurling test and imaging studies in the detection of cervical radiculopathy. Journal of Neuroimaging: Official Journal of the American Neuroimaging Society, 22(4), 375-378. doi: 10.1111/j.1522-6569.2011.00644.x