3 ms·
In the US those would be "signs", not symptoms. Symptoms are things like pain, fatigue, etc. Signs are observable. I think other countries/languages often use "
by llbeansandrice 4y ago
In the US those would be "signs", not symptoms. Symptoms are things like pain, fatigue, etc. Signs are observable. I think other countries/languages often use "subjective" symptoms and "objective" symptoms.
It's a very useful distinction between things that only the patient can tell you versus things that can be observes and tested for. How do you run a test to determine if a patient is "really" experiencing chest pain? You cannot. You can run tests to try and determine an obvious cause for that symptom, but there is no test to tell you if say perhaps the patient is lying about having chest pain.
- rhino369 4y agoIt might be a useful distinction, but it's weird terminology to a layman. Because in non-medical lingo, those are symptoms in the USA.