Nosology

Nosology (in Greek Nosos = Disease) is a branch of medicine that deals with classification of diseases.

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Diseases can be classified by etiology (cause), pathogenesis (mechanism in which the agent causes disease) or by symptom. Alternatively, diseases can be classified according to the organ system they involve, but this is often complicated as many diseases affect multiple organs.

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One of the main problems with nosologies is that diseases often cannot be defined and classified clearly especially when pathogenesis or causality is not known. So, diagnostic terms often are in fact only symptoms or sets of symptoms (syndromes).

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Greek: The noun Greek refers to:...

Medicine: Medicine is a branch of health science concerned with maintaining human health and restoring it by treating disease and injury; it is both an area of knowledge, a science of body systems and diseases and their treatment, and the applied practice of that knowledge....

Disease: A disease is any abnormal condition of the body or mind that causes discomfort, dysfunction, or distress to the person affected or those in contact with the person. Sometimes the term is used broadly to include injuries, disabilities, syndromes, symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations o...