A comprehensive clinical examination is the basis for selecting further diagnostic steps:
- General physical examination – including blood pressure, pulse, body weight, height; furthermore:
- Inspection (viewing).
- Skin [if applicable. Eczema-like skin changes (neurodermatitis-like areal affection to nummular(coin-shaped)-microbial type; in the nummular-microbial type, the hyperpigmented eczema foci are not infrequently located above the visible varicose veins) with stasis dermatitis (with the clinical symptom triad of redness, scaling and excoriations/superficial substance defect with exposure of the papillary bodies and punctiform blood leaks, scarring possible), induration (tissue hardening), atrophy blanche (small white areas of mostly coarse, scar-like consistency; (small white areas of mostly coarse, scarred consistency; preferably in the region of the upper ankle joint) or ulceration (e.g., ulcus cruris/tibial ulcer). B. Ulcus cruris / deep, usually weeping wound in the area of the lower leg)]
- Mucous membranes
- Extremities (including measurement of the circumference of the lower leg on both sides) [reddish spots on the legs; possibly slight lower leg edema (increase in circumference due to water retention)].
- Palpation of the extremities
- Inspection (viewing).
- If necessary, perform the following test:
- Brodie-Trendelenburg test (clinical test to detect valvular insufficiency (leakiness of venous valves) in the perforating or truncal veins in varicosis).
- Perthes test (clinical test to check the function of the perforating and truncal vein valves and the patency of the deep leg veins)
- Health check
Square brackets [ ] indicate possible pathological (pathological) physical findings.
