Meaning & use
clinical presentation
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Meanings
nouncountablemedicalformal
The set of signs and symptoms with which a patient first appears to a doctor, showing how a disease or condition looks in that person.
Grammar: Usually used with 'the' or 'a': 'The clinical presentation was unusual.' It can also be uncountable in general statements: 'Clinical presentation varies with age.'
Patterns
- the clinical presentation of something
- a clinical presentation of something
- clinical presentation with something
The clinical presentation of the infection included a high fever and a rash.
In older patients, the clinical presentation may be vague, with confusion rather than chest pain.
The doctor described the clinical presentation as typical of appendicitis.
nouncountable or uncountablemedicalspecialist
The way a particular medical condition typically appears in a group of patients, as described in textbooks or studies.
Grammar: Often used in medical writing: 'The classic clinical presentation of measles is...' It can refer to a pattern rather than one patient's case.
Patterns
- the classic clinical presentation of something
- a typical clinical presentation
The classic clinical presentation of measles is a high fever followed by a red rash.
Medical students learn the typical clinical presentation of common diseases.
Word forms
| plural | clinical presentations |
|---|
Common combinations
- typical clinical presentation
- The typical clinical presentation of the flu includes fever, cough, and muscle aches.
- classic clinical presentation
- The classic clinical presentation of appendicitis is pain that starts near the navel and moves to the lower right abdomen.
- clinical presentation of a disease
- The clinical presentation of this disease can vary from mild to severe.
- initial clinical presentation
- The initial clinical presentation was just a headache, so the diagnosis was delayed.
Synonyms and how they differ
- symptoms
- This is the everyday word for what the patient feels; 'clinical presentation' is more technical and includes signs a doctor observes as well as symptoms.
- manifestation
- This is a formal word for how a disease shows itself; it is often used in the same contexts but can refer to a single sign rather than the whole picture.
Word family
- clinical adjective
- Relating to the treatment of patients or to medical observation.
- present verb
- To show a symptom or condition to a doctor, as in 'The patient presented with a fever.'
- presentation noun
- The way something appears or is shown; in medicine, the way a condition first appears.
Commonly confused: clinical presentation or clinical picture?
clinical presentation vs clinical picture
This is very similar but often refers to the doctor's overall understanding of the case, while 'clinical presentation' focuses on how the patient first appears.
Practice
The doctor noted that the patient's clinical presentation was unusual because she had no fever, ______ is common in this infection.
Choose one answer.
The correct answer is 'which' because it introduces a non-defining relative clause describing the fever. 'What' would not fit grammatically here, and 'who' would refer to a person, not a symptom.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “clinical presentation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.