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; further:
- Inspection (viewing).
- Skin, mucous membranes, pharynx (throat), and sclerae (white part of the eye) [reddened throat/ tonsils?]
- Palpation (palpation) of the abdomen (abdomen) (tenderness?, knocking pain?, coughing pain?, defensive tension?, hernial orifices?, kidney bearing knocking pain?)
- Inspection (viewing).
- Neurological examination – including determination of degree of strength as well as examination of sensibility [due todifferential diagnoses:
- Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS; synonyms: Idiopathic polyradiculoneuritis, Landry-Guillain-Barré-Strohl syndrome); two courses: acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy or chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (peripheral nervous system disease); idiopathic polyneuritis (multiple nerve disease) of spinal nerve roots and peripheral nerves with ascending paralysis and pain; usually occurs after infection
- Polyneuritis
- Paraplegia]
[due topossible sequelae: neuropathies (nerve diseases/nerve damage)]
- If necessary, orthopedic examination [due topossible secondary disease: muscle damage (paresis/paralysis)]
- Neurological examination – due tosymptomatology: paralyses (these can be divided into one:
- Spinal (flaccid paralysis of the extremities).
- Bulbopontine (cranial nerve palsies with disturbance of the respiratory and circulatory centers).
- Encephalitic (signs of brain inflammation) form]
Square brackets [ ] indicate possible pathological (pathological) physical findings.
