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- In general usage, the word diagnosis refers to a determination about what the problem is with something, such as a machine or a process. In contrast, a prognosis is a prediction about how something will turn out.
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The meaning of DIAGNOSIS is the art or act of identifying a disease from its signs and symptoms. How to use diagnosis in a sentence.
- Overview
- Historical aspects
diagnosis, the process of determining the nature of a disease or disorder and distinguishing it from other possible conditions. The term comes from the Greek gnosis, meaning knowledge.
The diagnostic process is the method by which health professionals select one disease over another, identifying one as the most likely cause of a person’s symptoms. Symptoms that appear early in the course of a disease are often more vague and undifferentiated than those that arise as the disease progresses, making this the most difficult time to make an accurate diagnosis. Reaching an accurate conclusion depends on the timing and the sequence of the symptoms, past medical history and risk factors for certain diseases, and a recent exposure to disease. The physician, in making a diagnosis, also relies on various other clues such as physical signs, nonverbal signals of distress, and the results of selected laboratory and radiological and other imaging tests. From the large number of facts obtained, a list of possible diagnoses can be determined, which are referred to as the differential diagnosis. The physician organizes the list with the most likely diagnosis given first. Additional information is identified, and appropriate tests are selected that will narrow the list or confirm one of the possible diseases.
Traditionally, diagnosis has been defined as the art of identifying a disease from its signs and symptoms. Formerly, few diagnostic tests were available to assist the physician, who depended on medical history, observation, and examination. In the 20th century there occurred numerous technological advances in medicine, which resulted in the development of a wide variety of diagnostic tests and new techniques to image tissues. These developments significantly improved the ability of doctors to make accurate diagnoses.
In the 5th century bce, at the time of the Greek physician Hippocrates, there arose significant interest in medicine and personal hygiene. The Greeks recognized the salubrious effects of bathing, fresh air, a good diet, and exercise. The ancient Romans also recognized the influence of these factors on health and even made significant advances in supplying and purifying water and in improving sanitation. Today, a balanced diet, clean air and water, and exercise continue to be emphasized as important factors for maintaining health. The ancient Greeks also introduced the notion that illness resulted from an imbalance between the four humours of the body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. They emphasized the value of observation, including bodily signs and excretions. However, the focus was more on predicting the outcome of an illness (i.e., prognosis) and less on its diagnosis. A physician’s reputation depended on accurate prognostic skills, predicting who would recover and who would die or how long an illness would last.
Hippocrates is credited with establishing the ethical basis of the physician’s behaviour, and graduating physicians still recite the Hippocratic oath. His writings document the value of objectively evaluating all aspects of the patient’s symptoms, diet, sleep patterns, and habits. No finding was considered insignificant, and physicians were encouraged to employ all their senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—in making a diagnosis. These principles hold just as true today.
Galen of Pergamum (129 ce–c. 216) is considered the most influential physician after Hippocrates because of his extensive studies in anatomy and physiology. His voluminous writings rendered him the ultimate authority in these fields until the 16th century. As the first experimental neurologist, he described the cranial nerves and the sympathetic nervous system. He observed the structural differences between arteries and veins. One of his most important demonstrations was that the arteries carry blood, not air, as had been taught for 400 years. However, many of his views contained fallacies, which remained unchallenged for centuries. His description of the heart and its chambers and valves, in which he contended that blood passes from the right to the left ventricle by means of invisible pores in the interventricular septum, delayed the discovery of blood circulation for 14 centuries. The true nature of the circulation of blood was not recognized until the early 17th century, when English physician William Harvey published his findings in Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (1628; Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, or simply De Motu Cordis).
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May 12, 2022 · A diagnosis is typically based on observation of symptoms and diagnostic testing. A prognosis is based on the patient’s specific circumstances and what’s known about how the diagnosed condition typically affects patients in similar circumstances.
DIAGNOSIS definition: 1. a judgment about what a particular illness or problem is, made after examining it: 2. a…. Learn more.
Although diagnosis and prognosis are both very familiar medical terms, they are sometimes used interchangeably (by nonmedical people), as if they were synonymous words. They are not. When a person is unwell and asks a doctor what is wrong with them, what they are asking for is a diagnosis.
A diagnosis, in the sense of diagnostic procedure, can be regarded as an attempt at classification of an individual's condition into separate and distinct categories that allow medical decisions about treatment and prognosis to be made.
a judgment about what a particular illness or problem is, made after examining it: "What was the diagnosis?" "Arthritis in both joints ." make a diagnosis The doctor has made an initial diagnosis. diagnosis of Diagnosis of the disease is difficult in the early stages. Fewer examples.
