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General & Eye–Ear Signs
General examination signs that cross systems: the tuning-fork tests of hearing, eye signs from colour-vision plates to the red reflex, and whole-body findings such as fluid in the abdomen and capillary fragility.
This page lists all 25 of them in the guide. Open any sign for how it is elicited, what it suggests, and its eponym story where it has one.
| Sign | System | A positive finding is associated with |
|---|---|---|
| Abdominojugular test | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with right heart failure and raised right-sided filling pressures. |
| Absent red reflex | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with congenital cataract, retinoblastoma and other serious eye conditions in childhood — it always needs prompt specialist assessment. |
| Allen's test | General, Eyes & Ears | Used before radial artery puncture or cannulation to check that the ulnar artery alone can supply the hand. |
| Amsler grid | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with disease of the central retina (macula), such as age-related macular degeneration. |
| Bitot's spots | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with vitamin A deficiency, an important preventable cause of blindness worldwide. |
| Buerger's test | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with significant peripheral arterial disease of the legs. |
| Capillary refill time | General, Eyes & Ears | A prolonged refill is associated with poor peripheral circulation or shock, and a brisk refill with a warm, vasodilated circulation. |
| Corneal arcus | General, Eyes & Ears | Common and usually benign with age; in people under about 45 it is associated with inherited lipid disorders such as familial hypercholesterolaemia. |
| Cover test | General, Eyes & Ears | Used to detect manifest and latent strabismus in children and adults. |
| Faget sign | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with certain infections, classically yellow fever, and also typhoid fever, legionnaires' disease and some other intracellular infections. |
| Fluid thrill | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with a tense collection of free fluid in the abdomen (ascites). |
| Hirschberg test | General, Eyes & Ears | Used to detect and roughly grade strabismus (misalignment of the eyes), especially in children. |
| Ishihara test | General, Eyes & Ears | Used to screen for inherited red-green colour vision deficiency. |
| Kayser–Fleischer rings | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with copper deposition in Wilson's disease. |
| Koplik's spots | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with measles (rubeola) in its prodromal phase. |
| Korotkoff sounds | General, Eyes & Ears | The basis of manual (auscultatory) blood pressure measurement. |
| Lisch nodules | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with neurofibromatosis type 1, in which they are the commonest eye finding. |
| Pastia's lines | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with scarlet fever, caused by group A streptococcal toxin. |
| Pitting oedema | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with fluid accumulation from many causes — heart failure, kidney and liver disease, venous insufficiency and some medicines among them. |
| Rinne test | General, Eyes & Ears | Air conduction exceeding bone conduction is normal or seen in sensorineural loss; bone conduction exceeding air conduction is associated with conductive hearing loss in that ear. |
| Shifting dullness | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with free fluid in the peritoneal cavity (ascites). |
| Stemmer's sign | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with lymphoedema rather than oedema from heart, kidney or vein causes. |
| Strawberry tongue | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with scarlet fever, Kawasaki disease and toxic shock syndrome. |
| Superior vena cava obstruction | General, Eyes & Ears | Associated with blockage of the superior vena cava, most often by a tumour or enlarged nodes in the chest, and sometimes by a clot around a central line. |
| Weber test | General, Eyes & Ears | Used with the Rinne test to help distinguish conductive from sensorineural hearing loss. |
Please note: This page is an educational reference about clinical examination signs. A clinical sign supports — and never replaces — a full clinical evaluation, examination and appropriate testing. A sign being present does not by itself prove a diagnosis, and an absent sign does not rule one out. If you have symptoms that worry you, see a health professional.