Syndrome

A syndrome is a set of medical signs and symptoms that are correlated with each other and often associated with a particular disease or disorder, with the word coming from a Greek term meaning concurrence. Once the underlying cause of a syndrome becomes known it is often reclassified as a disease, though the terms syndrome, disease and disorder are frequently used interchangeably, especially for inherited conditions. Some syndromes, such as toxic shock syndrome, can result from more than one underlying cause, while others, such as premenstrual syndrome, describe a collection of symptoms rather than a single distinct disease. Syndromes have traditionally been named after the physicians who first described them, though newer syndromes are increasingly given descriptive names based on their symptoms or causes.