A medical sign, (often simply referred to as a sign), is an objective indication of some medical fact or characteristic that may be detected by a physician during a physical examination of a patient. Signs may have no meaning for, or even be noticed by, the patient, but may be full of meaning for the healthcare provider, and are often significant in assisting a healthcare provider in diagnosis of the medical condition responsible for the patient's symptoms.
List of medical signs[]
The following lists of medical signs are grouped according to speciality.
Cardiovascular system[]
| Sign | Description |
|---|---|
| Austin Flint Murmur | Mid-diastolic rumble heard at apex. |
| Bainbridge reflex | Increase in heart rate with increase in circulating blood volume. |
| Bracht-Wachter bodies | Yellow-white spots in the myocardium. |
| Branham’s sign* (see Nicoladoni) | Pressing on proximal portion of AV fistula results in bradycardia. |
| Broadbent inverted sign | Systole palpable in posterior chest wall. |
| Broadbent sign | Recession of L-inferior intercostal spaces. |
| Bruit de Roger (pediatric) | Loud pansystolic murmur. |
| Cardarelli’s sign | Left displacement of trachea elicits palpable pulsation of same. |
| Carey Coombs murmur | Mid-diastolic rumble. |
| Carvallo’s sign | Increase in volume of murmur on inspiration. |
| Churchill-Cope reflex | Distension of pulmonary vascular bed causes tachypnoea. |
| Corrigan pulse (see also: Water hammer pulse) | Carotid pulsations with abrupt ascending and descending phases. |
| De Musset’s sign | Head nodding in time with heartbeat. |
| Duroziez’s sign | Double bruit heard over femoral artery when it is compressed distally (see also: Traube's sign). |
| Ewart’s sign | Percussive dullness, aegophony and bronchial breath sounds at L scapular tip. |
| Frank’s sign | Ear crease indicating risk of heart disease (disputed). |
| Friedrich’s sign | Collapse of distended neck veins in diastole. |
| Gallavardin phenomenon | Dissociation of musical and noisy elements in ejection murmur. |
| Graham Steell murmur | Pulmonary regurgitation murmur in patients with pulmonary hypertension secondary to mitral stenosis. |
| Janeway lesion | Palmar or plantar erythematous or haemorrhagic papules. |
| Korotkoff sounds | 5 sounds originally described - only the first (the onset of audible sound, corresponding to systolic pressure) and the fifth (sound becomes inaudible, corresponding to diastolic pressure) are of practical & clinical significance. |
| Kussmaul’s sign | |
| Lancisi’s sign | |
| Levine’s sign | |
| Litten’s sign | |
| Mayne’s sign (Mayen’s sign?) | |
| McConnell’s sign | |
| Müller’s sign | |
| Wolff-Parkinson-White triadv | |
| Osborn wave | |
| Quincke’s sign | |
| Schamroth’s window test | |
| Shone’s complex |
