English term (edited): review of systems is negative

This is an example of medical jargon, proving yet again that medicine is a subculture with its own idiomatic lexicon that transcends technical and anatomical terminology.

First of all, it is helpful to know the format of a standard medical report which is:
History of current complaint.
Past medical history
Family History
Allergies
Medications
Functional inquiry (also known as REVIEW of SYSTEMS)
Physical examination
Impression (also known as differential diagnosis)

The "review of systems" is a series of questions posed to the patient to check for symptoms that might not have been mentioned by the patient and which may or may not have relevance to the current complaint. These questions are organized by "organ system". Examples of organ systems are the respiratory system, the cardiovascular system, the musculoskeletal system, etc.

A functional inquiry usually takes the form:
Ear nose throat
Respiratory
Cardiovascular
Gastrointestinal
Genitourinary
Musculoskeletal
Neurological
Endocrinological
Integument
etc

Each of the above systems has a series of standard questions. Typical questions for the genitourinary system, for example, would be:
Do you have a weak urinary stream?
Do you have to get up a night to urinate?
Do you have pain on urination?
Do you ever notice blood in your urine?
Do you have problems with erections?
If female, when was the last menstrual period, etc ?

The "review of systems was negative" is medical shorthand for saying that other than the stated symptoms already mentioned in the history of the present illness, the patient did not have any of the symptoms posed during the functional inquiry.