Symptoms

Conditions may also be classified as symptomatic (present and demonstrating symptoms) or asymptomatic (present but without symptoms). Asymptomatic conditions exist for years undiagnosed and may only be found upon medical testing.

Constitutional or general symptoms are those that are related to the systemic effects of a disease (e.g., fever, malaise, anorexia, weight loss). They affect the entire body rather than a specific organ or location.

The terms "chief complaint", "presenting symptom", or "presenting complaint" are used to describe the initial concern which brings a patient to a doctor.

The symptom that ultimately leads to a diagnosis is called a "cardinal symptom". Some symptoms occur in a wide range of disease processes, whereas other symptoms are fairly specific for a narrow range of illnesses. For example, a sudden loss of sight in one eye has a significantly smaller number of possible causes than nausea does.

Neurosurgery is the surgical discipline focused on treating those central, peripheral nervous system and spinal column diseases and there symptoms.

For more information on specific diseases and their symptoms please browse our content