The Diagnostic Significance of Clubbed Fingers

¹ The Medical and Surgical Chest Service of Barnes Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri., The University of Oregon Medical School, Mayer Building, Portland, Oregon.

1. Clubbing of the fingers is present in about 80 per cent of severe bronchiectasis and chronic lung abscess patients.

2. Clubbing is also noted in about 25 per cent of cases of pulmonary tuberculosis, particularly in the more advanced stages of the disease.

3. Pulmonary osteoarthropathy may be one of the valuable early signs of bronchogenic carcinoma and mixed tumor of the bronchus.

4. The relative incidence of osteoarthropathy is low in intestinal disease, liver disease, syphilis and the other causes of clubbed fingers in comparison with that found in pleuro-pulmonary and congenital heart disease.

5. All patients with clubbed fingers should have complete chest x-ray examination, including bronchography, unless the diagnosis is obvious on the plain chest film.