Signs and symptoms

Pain felt anywhere in the belly, between the chest and the groin.

A benign tumor of the Schwann cells around the balance part of the eighth cranial nerve, also called a vestibular schwannoma.

Pain that starts suddenly from an injury, surgery or illness and is expected to ease as the body heals.

A sudden, life-threatening shortage of the adrenal hormones cortisol and aldosterone, in which the blood pressure falls and the patient can go into shock.

Without fever; having a normal body temperature.

A state of restlessness and tension with too much movement, often with irritability.

Awake and aware, and able to say correctly who they are, where they are and when it is.

A reaction of the immune system to a substance that is harmless to most people.

With an infant lying on the back, hips and knees bent and feet flat, one knee sits lower than the other.

Loss of hair from the head or body.

A brief loss of part or all of the vision in one eye, often described as a curtain coming down, that clears on its own.

Poor vision in an eye that looks healthy, because the brain learned in childhood to ignore that eye's image.

The absence of menstrual periods.

A sudden, severe allergic reaction that affects the whole body.

Chest pain or pressure that happens when the heart muscle does not get enough blood and oxygen.

A loss of appetite or of the wish to eat; also short for anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder.

Making little or no urine: less than about 50 to 100 mL in 24 hours in an adult.

A feeling of worry, fear or unease about something that may happen, often with physical signs such as a racing heart.

Inability to swallow.

Loss or impairment of the ability to understand or use language, from damage to the brain.

A pause in breathing, or breathing that has stopped.

Inability to carry out a learned, purposeful movement even though the person has the strength, feeling and wish to do it.

A small, often irregular pupil that narrows when the eyes focus on something near but does not narrow when light shines in it.

A heart rhythm that is not normal: too fast, too slow or irregular.

A buildup of fluid in the abdominal cavity, the space around the organs of the belly.

A flapping movement of the hands when the arms are held out with the wrists bent back.

A focusing error in which an unevenly curved cornea or lens spreads light over an area of the retina instead of one sharp point.

Having no symptoms: the person feels and seems well.

Loss of control and coordination of body movements, so that movements are clumsy and unsteady.

A fast, regular heart rhythm from a single circuit in the atrium that shows sawtooth flutter waves on the ECG at about 250 to 350 a minute.

An upward movement of the big toe, with the other toes fanning out, when the sole of the foot is stroked.

Pain felt anywhere along the back, most often in the lower back.

A rounded chest shape in which the front-to-back depth is about as large as the side-to-side width.

Bruising over the bone just behind the ear.

Three findings together: low blood pressure, distended neck veins and muffled heart sounds.

A breathing pattern of groups of quick, shallow breaths of similar depth, separated by irregular pauses with no breathing.

A mental health condition with periods of very high mood and energy (mania) and, often, periods of depression.

Blood escaping from a blood vessel, either out of the body or inside it.

A raised bubble of skin filled with clear fluid.

A feeling of fullness, tightness or swelling in the abdomen.

Abdominal pain that is worse when pressure is suddenly released than when it is applied.

A gurgling or clicking sound made by gas and fluid moving through the intestines, heard with a stethoscope.

A heart rate slower than normal; in an adult, fewer than 60 beats per minute.

Breathing that is slower than normal for the person's age.

A sudden tightening of the muscles around the airways that narrows them.

A discolored area of skin where blood has leaked from small broken vessels into the tissue underneath.

A whooshing or blowing sound heard with a stethoscope over a blood vessel.

Small white, gray or light-brown spots arranged in a ring near the outer edge of the iris.

A fatty lump on the upper back at the base of the neck, between the shoulders.

A round red rash with a lighter center and a red outer ring, so it looks like a target.