A comprehensive clinical examination is the basis for selecting further diagnostic steps:
- General physical examination – including blood pressure, pulse, body weight, height; further:
- Inspection (viewing).
- Skin, mucous membranes and sclerae (white part of the eye).
- Auscultation (listening) of the heart.
- Palpation (palpation) of the abdomen (belly), the back, the flanks (pressure pain?, knock pain?, cough pain?, defensive tension?, hernial gates?, kidney bearing knock pain? ) [Differential diagnoses: glomerulonephritis (kidney disease with inflammation of the kidney filterlets (glomeruli)); IgA nephropathy (disease of the kidney mediated by the immune system); nephrolithiasis (kidney stones); papillary necrosis (inflammatory changes in the renal papillae with death of tissue); pyelonephritis (renal pelvic inflammation); thin basement membrane and pelvic syndrome [abdominal pain].
- Digital rectal examination (DRU): examination of the rectum (rectum) and adjacent organs with the finger by palpation: assessment of the prostate gland in size, shape and consistency [benign prostatic hyperplasia (benign proliferation of the tissue of the prostate gland); prostate carcinoma (prostate cancer)]
- Inspection (viewing).
- Cancer screening
- Urological examination [differential diagnoses: e.g. urinary bladder carcinoma (bladder cancer), nephrolithiasis (kidney stones), renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer), prostate carcinoma (prostate cancer), urethritis (urethritis), urolithiasis (urinary stone disease), cystitis (bladder inflammation), etc.; due topossible sequelae: Ischuria (urinary retention; inability to urinate despite urge to urinate – due to blood clots that interfere with urinary flow)]
Square brackets [ ] indicate possible pathological (pathological) physical findings.
