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 [Hyperhidrosis (sweating) is:
- Local or focal, i.e., increased sweating in specific areas of the body (e.g., armpits, hands, feet)
- Generalized, i.e., increased sweating over the entire body (e.g., as night sweats). Generalized hyperhidrosis usually occurs as an accompanying symptom in the presence of an underlying disease].
- Skin and mucous membranes [Hyperhidrosis (sweating) is:
- Auscultation (listening) of the heart.
- Auscultation of the lungs
- Palpation (palpation) of the abdomen (abdomen), etc.
- Inspection (viewing).
- If necessary, neurological examination [due todifferential diagnoses:
- Apoplexy (stroke)
- Epilepsy
- Parkinson’s syndrome
- Sleep apnea syndrome
- Sympathetic nervous system damage – e.g., traumatic damage to the sympathetic nervous system or the sweat center in the hypothalamus; irritation of the sympathetic nervous system by a cervical rib; neck marker disease; paraplegic symptomatology]
- Psychiatric examination, if necessary [due todifferential diagnoses:
- Alcohol dependence
- Nightmares
- Anxiety disorders
- Drug withdrawal
- Gustatory sweating – form of sweating that occurs after eating.
- Panic attacks
- Stress]
- If necessary, rheumatological examination [due todifferential diagnoses:
- Arteritis temporalis (synonyms: Arteriitis cranialis; Horton’s disease; giant cell arteritis; Horton-Magath-Brown syndrome) – systemic vasculitis (vascular inflammation) affecting the arteriae temporales (temporal arteries), especially in the elderly.
- Chronic polyarthritis (synonym: rheumatoid arthritis) – chronic inflammatory multisystem disease, which usually manifests itself in the form of synovitis (inflammation of the synovial membrane).
- Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), formerly Wegener’s granulomatosis – necrotizing (tissue dying) vasculitis (vascular inflammation) of the small to medium-sized vessels (small vessel vasculitides), which is accompanied by granuloma formation (nodule formation) in the upper respiratory tract (nose, sinuses, middle ear, oropharynx) and the lower respiratory tract (lungs).
- Scleroderma – (sclero = hard, dermie = skin) – rare autoimmune disease associated with hardening of connective tissue of the skin alone or of the skin and internal organs (especially digestive tract, lungs, heart and kidneys)
- Sudeck’s syndrome – CRPS (chronic regional pain syndrome, Sudeck’s syndrome) – persistent pain after an injury (for example, after a distal radius fracture – fracture of the radius) caused by a disorder of the autonomic nervous system.
- Vasculitides (vascular inflammations), unspecified]
- Health check
Square brackets [ ] indicate possible pathological (pathological) physical findings.