I believe the word you're looking for is "pathognomonic."

From Wikipedia:  Pathognomonic (often misspelled as pathognomic and sometimes as pathomnemonic) is an adjective of Greek origin (παθογνωμονικό [σύμπτωμα]), often used in medicine, which means diagnostic for a particular disease. A pathognomonic sign is a particular sign whose presence means, beyond any doubt, that a particular disease is present. It is derived from the Greek páthos (πάθος, disease) and gnōmon (γνώμον, "judge"). Labelling a sign or symptom "pathognomonic" represents a marked intensification of a "diagnostic" sign or symptom.

E. Spencer Joslin, MD

in reply to:  

If a symptom occurs only with a certain problem, and always with that = problem, we say it's ______ of that. As in, "Blue spots in clusters of = three are ____ of Whatzit." It's not "symptomatic of" or = "characteristic of" because those imply that the symptoms also occur = with other illnesses. What's the phrase that means "always this and = only this"?

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL Ithaca, NY USA  <outbind://1/www.normalfed.com> www.normalfed.com


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