THIEME Clinical Rounds e1 Clinical Sign: Clubbing Maddury Jyotsna1 Jagan Mohan Tharakan2 1 Department of Cardiology, Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences Address for correspondence Prof.MadduryJyotsna,MD,DM,FACC, (NIMS), Punjagutta, Hyderabad, Telangana, India FESC, FICC, Department of Cardiology, Nizam’s Institute of Medical 2 Department of Cardiology, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences (NIMS), Punjagutta, Hyderabad 500082, Telangana, India Sciences and Medical College,Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India (e-mail:
[email protected]). Indian J Cardiovasc Dis Women-WINCARS 2017;2:e1–e9. Background Although usually an autosomal dominant model with incom- Since Hippocrates first described digital clubbing in patients plete penetrance and variable expression, both autosomal with empyema, digital clubbing has been associated with recessive and X-linked inheritance have been suggested in various underlying pulmonary, cardiovascular, neoplastic, some PDP families. infectious, hepatobiliary, mediastinal, endocrine, and gastro- intestinal diseases. Finger clubbing also may occur, without Secondary Clubbing evident underlying disease, as an idiopathic form or as a Secondary clubbing occurs due to multiple systemic causes mendelian dominant trait. described in the following text. Definition Method of Examination “Clubbing” is a clinically descriptive term, referring to the Anatomic considerations, such as the classic measurement of bulbous uniform swelling of the soft tissue of the terminal the Lovibond angle or the more recently derived index of nail phalanx of a digit with subsequent loss of the normal angle curvature by Goyal et al, usually can be identified on simple between the nail and the nail bed. physical examination and can be used to identify digital clubbing and to monitor this dynamic process objectively.1 Classification Various imaging modalities have been used not only to eval- uate clubbing but also to help identify possible clues to its Digital clubbing is classified into primary (i.e., idiopathic, development.