A comprehensive clinical examination is the basis for selecting further diagnostic steps:
- General physical examination – including blood pressure, pulse, body temperature, body weight, body height; furthermore:
- Inspection (viewing).
- Skin and mucous membranes [often broad ulcerated (“ulcerated”) nodule in cutis (skin) and subcutis (subcutis) (palpable) – usually painless/poor]
- Neck
- Extremities:
- [swelling? Size; consistency; displaceability of skin from underlying surface]
- Spine, thorax (chest)]
- Assessment of blood flow, motor function, and sensibility:
- Circulation (palpation of pulses).
- Motor function: testing of gross strength in a lateral comparison.
- Sensibility (neurological examination)
- Auscultation (listening) of the heart.
- Auscultation of the lungs
- Palpation (palpation) of the painful area [pressure pain, pain on movement, pain at rest?]
- Palpation of the abdomen (belly), etc.
- Inspection (viewing).
- [due todifferential diagnoses:
- Fibrous dysplasia – malformation of bone tissue, that is, the bones form tumor-like protrusions.
- Bone infarction (demise of bone tissue).
- Paget’s disease (osteodystrophia deformans) – bone disease that leads to bone remodeling and gradually thickening of several bones, usually the spine, pelvis, extremities or skull.
- Osteomyelitis – acute or chronic inflammation of the bone and bone marrow, usually due to bacterial infection; combination of osteitis and myelitis (bone marrow/spinal cord)
- Injuries/sports injuries]
- Health Check
Square brackets [ ] indicate possible pathological (pathological) physical findings.