Additional signs

Vital signs are measures of various physiological statistics often taken by health professionals in order to assess the most basic body functions. Vital signs are an essential part of a case presentation. While various additional signs have been proposed, none have been officially universally adopted due to the expense in obtaining equipment required to diagnose and the difficulty in training entry-level professionals.

However, body mass index (ratio of height to weight) has been introduced in recent years as an additional vital sign that is easy to measure and indicative of disease risk.

Fifth sign

The phrase "fifth vital sign" usually refers to pain, as perceived by the patient on a Pain scale of 0–10. For example, the Veterans Administration made this their policy in 1999. However, some doctors have noted that pain is actually a subjective symptom, not an objective sign, and therefore object to this classification.

Other sources include pulse oximetry as their fifth sign.

Some sources consider pupil size, equality, and reactivity to light to be a vital sign as well.

Sixth sign

There is no standard "sixth vital sign", and the use is much more informal and discipline-dependent than with the above, but some proposals (excluding the fifth sign candidates above) include:

· Urinary continence
· End-tidal CO2
· Emotional distress
· Spirometry
· Glucose
· Functional Status
· Intracranial pressure
· Skin signs (color)
· Shortness of breath
· Molecular Genetics in Oncology