symptompresentationer

Symptompresentationer describe how symptoms and signs of illness are presented by patients or observed by clinicians during the course of disease. They include onset, duration, sequence, quality, location, intensity, and associated factors, and they shape initial diagnostic reasoning and management decisions.

Presentations vary across age groups, sexes, cultural backgrounds, and comorbid conditions. Atypical or polymorphic presentations are common for certain diseases or in older patients. For example, myocardial infarction may present with jaw pain, dyspnea, or fatigue rather than classic chest pain, and young children may show irritability or vomiting instead of verbal reports of pain.

Clinical assessment of symptom presentation relies on structured history taking and, when possible, standardized symptom descriptors. Clinicians document onset and chronology, quality and location, intensity, aggravating and relieving factors, associated symptoms, and red flags such as sudden weakness, severe chest pain, or acute confusion.

Knowing the symptom presentation supports triage, prioritization of tests, and selection of differential diagnoses. It is influenced by patient communication, health literacy, recall bias, and language barriers, and it may be limited by nonspecific or overlapping symptoms. In research, symptom presentation is used to characterize disease phenotypes and evaluate diagnostic pathways.

See also: differential diagnosis, triage, clinical reasoning.