"endorse" as medicalese for '(patient) report (symptom)'

Mark Mandel thnidu at GMAIL.COM
Fri Feb 13 18:21:59 UTC 2009


On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 1:09 PM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
>
> i wasn't aware of this use of "present" until this moment; "present
> with" is what i'm used to hearing in medical jargon.  but now i see
> that the OED has both uses in medical contexts: intransitive
> "present", both of symptoms/conditions and of patients, transitive
> "present with" of patients.

Egad, so it does!

Slight correction:
 * intrans. CASE/SYMPTOM presents, PATIENT presents with SYMPTOM
 * trans. PATIENT presents SYMPTOM

Defs & recent quotes:

 11. a. intr. Of a condition, symptom, physical sign, etc.: to show
itself, to appear, to be manifest, to occur, esp. in a certain manner,
position, etc. Of a patient: to come to medical attention, esp. with a
particular symptom, etc.

1972 Nature 8 Sept. 102/2 These complications may present as
hypersensitivity reactions.

1993 Brit. Jrnl. Surg. 80 18/1 Patients who have appendicitis and a
mass tend to have a longer duration of symptoms and present to medical
attention after 5-7 days.

2003 E. J. CASSELL Doctoring i. 36 People with multiple sclerosis do
not arrive with a sign on their chest that says 'multiple sclerosis'.
Instead, they usually present with vague discomforts.

    b. trans. Of a patient: to manifest or exhibit (a symptom or physical sign).

1989 Brain 112 1029 All 3 patients presented abnormal neurological
findings such as mild cortico-spinal signs in the lower limbs.



I note in passing that one of the early quotes under 11.a.(intr.) is
actually reflexive, fitting into the primary sense of the word:  1.
trans. a. To bring or place (a person) before or into the presence of;
to bring to the notice of another; ...

1880 L. OWEN tr. F. Giraud-Teulon Elem. Treat. Function of Vision II.
ii. 30 The presbyope presents himself generally under the following
aspect: he has always enjoyed excellent distant vision [etc.].]

m a m

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