A medical sign is an objective indication of some medical fact or characteristic that may be detected by a physician during a physical examination or by a clinical scientist by means of an in vitro examination of a patient.
Signs may have no meaning to the client, and may even go unnoticed, but may be meaningful and significant to the healthcare provider in assisting the diagnosis of medical condition(s) responsible for the patient's symptoms.
Examples include elevated blood pressure, a clubbing of the fingers (which may be a sign of lung disease, or many other things), and arcus senilis.
The term sign is not to be confused with the term indication, which denotes a valid reason for using some treatment.
Read more about Medical Sign: Signs and Semiotics, Eponymous Signs, Signs Versus Symptoms, Types of Signs, Technological Development Creating Signs Detectable Only By Physicians, Signs As Tests, Examples of Signs
Famous quotes containing the words medical and/or sign:
“If science ever gets to the bottom of Voodoo in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it its power, rather than the gestures of ceremony.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“The test of an adventure is that when you’re in the middle of it, you say to yourself, “Oh, now I’ve got myself into an awful mess; I wish I were sitting quietly at home.” And the sign that something’s wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure.”
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)