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A medical sign is an objective indication of some medical fact or characteristic that may be detected by a physician during a physical examination of a patient. For example, whereas paresthesia is a symptom (only the person experiencing it can directly observe their own tingling feeling), erythema is a sign (anyone can confirm that the skin is redder than usual). Symptoms and signs are often nonspecific, but often combinations of them are at least suggestive of certain diagnoses, helping to narrow down what may be wrong. In other cases they are specific even to the point of being pathognomonic. Some signs may have no meaning to the patient, and may even go unnoticed, but may be meaningful and significant to the healthcare provider in assisting diagnosis. Examples of signs 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. ==Signs and semiotics== The art of interpreting clinical signs was originally called ''semiotics'' (a term now used for the study of sign communication in general) in English. This term, then written ''semeiotics'' (derived from the Greek adjective σημειωτικός: ''semeiotikos'', "to do with signs"), was first used in English in 1670 by Henry Stubbes (1631–1676), to denote the branch of medical science relating to the interpretation of signs: :…nor is there any thing to be relied upon in Physick, but an exact knowledge of medicinal phisiology (founded on observation, not principles), semeiotics, method of curing, and tried (not excogitated, not commanding) medicines….〔Stubbe, H. (Henry Stubbes), ''The Plus Ultra reduced to a Non Plus: Or, A Specimen of some Animadversions upon the Plus Ultra of Mr. Glanvill, wherein sundry Errors of some Virtuosi are discovered, the Credit of the Aristotelians in part Re-advanced; and Enquiries made...'' (London), 1670, p. 75〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「medical sign」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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