In medicine, a sign is a feature of disease as detected by the doctor during physical examination of a patient. It is therefore "objective", as opposed to the patient's experience (symptom), which is (relatively) subjective. See also Medical doctor (BE), Physician (AE), and Medical school. ... In medicine, the physical examination or clinical examination is the process by which the physician investigates the body of a patient for signs of disease. ... In semantics, the patient is the passive part of a process. ... The term symptom (from the Greek syn = con/plus and pipto = fall, together meaning co-exist) has two similar meanings in the context of physical and mental health: A symptom may loosely be said to be a physical condition which shows that one has a particular illness or disorder (see...
The phrase "Clinical sign" is sometimes used to emphasize that the observation occurs in a clinical context.
Examples of signs are elevated blood pressure, or abnormal appearance of the retina, or clubbing of the fingernails. These would generally be meaningless to the patient, but can prompt the doctor to look for certain categories of diseases to explain the patient's symptoms. For other forms of hypertension see hypertension (disambiguation) Hypertension or high blood pressure is a medical condition where the blood pressure is chronically elevated. ... Human eye cross-sectional view. ... In medicine, clubbing (or digital clubbing) is a deformity of the fingers and fingernails that is associated with a number of diseases, mostly of the heart and lungs. ... The term symptom (from the Greek syn = con/plus and pipto = fall, together meaning co-exist) has two similar meanings in the context of physical and mental health: A symptom may loosely be said to be a physical condition which shows that one has a particular illness or disorder (see...
A number of signs are named after the doctors who first described them. See list of eponymous medical signs for a larger list. An eponym is a person, whether real or fictitious, whose name has (or is thought to have) given rise to the name of a particular place, tribe, discovery, or other item. ... Eponymous medical signs are medical signs that are named after a person or persons, usually the physicians who first described them, but occasionally named after a famous patient with the signs. ...
Moreover, assessment of symptoms and signs is important during treatment with medications in order to determine the effectiveness of treatment and the development of side effects.
In contrast, a sign is objective evidence of disease.
Medicalsigns and laboratory findings, established by medically acceptable clinical or laboratory diagnostic techniques, must show the existence of a medical impairment(s) which results from anatomical, physiological, or psychological abnormalities and which could reasonably be expected to produce the pain or other symptoms alleged.
When the medicalsigns or laboratory findings show that you have a medically determinable impairment(s) that could reasonably be expected to produce your symptoms, such as pain, we must then evaluate the intensity and persistence of your symptoms so that we can determine how your symptoms limit your capacity for work.
Objective medical evidence is evidence obtained from the application of medically acceptable clinical and laboratory diagnostic techniques, such as evidence of reduced joint motion, muscle spasm, sensory deficit or motor disruption.
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