COMMON SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

​COMMON SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS  

- Pulmonary tuberculosis: low-grade afternoon fever.  

- Pneumonia: rust-colored sputum.  

- Asthma: wheezing on expiration.  

- Emphysema: barrel chest.  

- Pernicious anemia: red beefy tongue.  

- Cholera: rice-watery stool and wrinkled hands from dehydration.

- Malaria: stepladder like fever with chills.  

- Typhoid: rose spots in the abdomen.  

- Dengue: fever, rash, and headache; positive Herman’s sign.  

- Diphtheria: pseudo membrane formation.  

- Measles: Koplik’s spots (clustered white lesions on buccal mucosa).  

- Systemic lupus erythematosus: butterfly rash.  

- Leprosy: leonine facies (thickened folded facial skin).  

- Appendicitis: rebound tenderness at McBurney’s point;  

Rovsing’s sign (palpation of LLQ elicits pain in RLQ); psoas sign  

(pain from flexing the thigh to the hip).  

- Meningitis: Kernig’s sign (stiffness of hamstrings causing  

inability to straighten the leg when the hip is flexed to 90º);  

Brudzinski’s sign (forced flexion of the neck elicits a reflex  

flexion of the hips).  

- Tetany: hypocalcemia; positive Trousseau’s and Chvostek  

sign.  

- Tetanus: Risus sardonicus or rictus grin.  

- Pancreatitis: Cullen’s sign (ecchymosis of the umbilicus); Grey  

Turner’s sign (bruising of the flank).  

- Pyloric stenosis: olive like mass.  

- Patent ductus arteriosus: washing machine-like murmur.  

- Addison’s disease: bronze-like skin pigmentation.  

- Cushing’s syndrome: moon face appearance and buffalo  

hump.  

- Graves’ disease (hyperthyroidism): Exophthalmos.  

- Intussusception: sausage-shaped mass.  

- Multiple sclerosis: Charcot’s triad: nystagmus, intention  

tremor, and dysarthria.  

- Myasthenia gravis: descending muscle weakness, ptosis.  

- Guillain-Barre syndrome: ascending muscle weakness.  

- Deep vein thrombosis: Homan’s sign.  

- Angina: crushing, stabbing pain relieved by nitroglycerin  

(NTG).  

- Myocardial Infarction: crushing, stabbing pain radiating to left  

shoulder, neck, and arms; unrelieved by NTG.  

- Cytomegalovirus infection: owl’s eye appearance of cells  

(huge nucleus in cells).  

- Retinal detachment: flashes of light, shadow with curtain  

across vision.  

- Basilar skull fracture: raccoon eyes (periorbital ecchymosis)  

and Battle’s sign (mastoid ecchymosis).  

- Buerger’s disease: intermittent claudication (pain at buttocks  

or legs from poor circulation resulting in impaired walking).  

- Diabetic ketoacidosis: acetone breathe.  

- Pre-eclampsia: proteinuria, hypertension, edema.  

- Diabetes mellitus: polydipsia, polyphagia, polyuria.  

- Hirschsprung’s Disease (Toxic Megacolon): ribbon-like stool.  

- Herpes Simplex Type II: painful vesicles on genitalia.  

- Genital Warts: warts 1-2 mm in diameter.  

- Syphilis: painless chancres.  

- Chancroid: painful chancres.  

- Gonorrhea: green, creamy discharges and painful urination.  

- Chlamydia: milky discharge and painful urination.  

- Candidiasis: white cheesy odorless vaginal discharges.  

- Trichomoniasis: yellow, itchy, frothy, and foul-smelling vaginal  

discharges.  

- Pulmonary edema: pink, frothy sputum, tachypnea, use of  

accessory muscles, crackles, anxiety/restlessness (Tx:  

furosemide)