VITAL SIGN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does vital sign mean? 

• VITAL SIGN (noun)
  The noun VITAL SIGN has 1 sense:

1. sign of life; usually an indicator of a person's general physical condition

  Familiarity information: VITAL SIGN used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VITAL SIGN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Sign of life; usually an indicator of a person's general physical condition

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

he was still alive but his vital signs were weak

Hypernyms ("vital sign" is a kind of...):

sign ((medicine) any objective evidence of the presence of a disorder or disease)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vital sign"):

blood heat; body temperature (temperature of the body; normally 98.6 F or 37 C in humans; usually measured to obtain a quick evaluation of a person's health)

blood pressure (the pressure of the circulating blood against the walls of the blood vessels; results from the systole of the left ventricle of the heart; sometimes measured for a quick evaluation of a person's health)

heart rate; pulse; pulse rate (the rate at which the heart beats; usually measured to obtain a quick evaluation of a person's health)

rate of respiration; respiratory rate (the rate at which a person inhales and exhales; usually measured to obtain a quick evaluation of a person's health)

 Context examples 

EXAMPLE(S): lab test, taking vital signs, physical exam.

(Performed Observation, NCI Thesaurus/BRIDG)

Does not include vital signs measurements, which are stored in the vital signs domain.

(Physical Exam Domain, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

The unit used to record and describe the result of a test investigating a vital sign.

(CDISC SDTM Unit for Vital Sign Result Terminology, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

The test name given to the test that analyzes a particular set of vital signs including temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, and blood pressure.

(CDISC SDTM Vital Sign Terminology by Name, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

The test code given to the test that analyzes a particular set of vital signs including temperature, respiratory rate, heart rate, and blood pressure.

(CDISC SDTM Vital Sign Terminology by Code, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

A terminology subset for the NCPDP that contains concepts of various measurements of vital signs, particularly those pertaining to information about a patient that would be shared between clinician and pharmacy in order to determine proper pharmaceutical care.

(NCPDP Measurement Unit Code Terminology, NCI Thesaurus)