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CHAPTER 2

Getting the right diagnosis

Discover how doctors identify IgG4-RD using blood tests, imaging, biopsies, and clinical patterns.

7 lessons
Total: TBC
Current lesson
Chapter 2 introduction
Learn about the tools doctors use to diagnose IgG4-RD including medical history, tests, and observation.
2 minutes
Chapter 2 Lessons
Chapter 2 introduction
Learn about the tools doctors use to diagnose IgG4-RD including medical history, tests, and observation.
2 minutes
Diagnosis overview
Why IgG4-RD is often missed, and clues to diagnosis.
8 minutes + videos
Classification criteria
Why formal criteria exist, and how they affect diagnosis.
8 minutes + video
Blood tests
Blood tests can guide care, but are not the whole story.
8 minutes + video
Imaging
Imaging helps spot silent organ involvement and guides biopsy.
6 minutes + videos
Biopsy
Biopsies clarify diagnosis by excluding alternative causes.
10 minutes + video
Chapter 2: Quiz
A short quiz to check your understanding of how IgG4‑RD is diagnosed.
5 minutes
Go to Treatment and disease management
Treatment and disease management

Chapter 2 introduction

This chapter walks you through how IgG4‑related disease (IgG4‑RD) is diagnosed. Because there isn’t a single test that can confirm it, doctors use a set of tools to gather clues from your history and exam, choose the right labs and imaging, and—when needed—take a small tissue sample (biopsy) to confirm the diagnosis.

In this lesson, you’ll:

  • see why diagnosis takes time and how doctors must weigh clues from a variety of areas together to arrive at a diagnosis

  • learn what each test can, and cannot, tell us

  • understand when a biopsy is needed and when it may not be possible

  • recognize how classification criteria help organize thinking (but are not a substitute for a clinician’s careful diagnosis)

  • understand the role steroid treatment helps in signalling IgG4-RD

What you’ll learn in this chapter

Lesson 1: Diagnosis overview 
Why IgG4-RD is often missed, and clues to diagnosis

Lesson 2: Classification criteria
Why formal criteria exist, how they organize the diagnosis of IgG4‑RD, and where they fit in clinic and research.

Lesson 3: Blood tests
Which blood markers may help (and which can mislead), what “serum IgG4” really means, and how to understand lab reports in plain language.

Lesson 4: Imaging
How CT, MRI, ultrasound, and PET scans show the pattern and extent of disease, as well as what typical findings look like and the limits of imaging alone.

Lesson 5: Biopsy
Why tissue is often the gold standard, what pathologists look for, and how biopsy results confirm the diagnosis and rule out look‑alike conditions.

Quiz: Test your knowledge
A short quiz to check understanding of how IgG4‑RD is diagnosed and why multiple tools are used together.

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