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In medicine, clubbing, finger clubbing, or digital clubbing is a deformity of the fingers and fingernails that is associated with a number of diseases, mostly of the heart and lungs. Idiopathic clubbing can also occur. Hippocrates was probably the first to document clubbing as a sign of disease, and the phenomenon is therefore occasionally called Hippocratic fingers.
Clubbing develops in five steps:[1]
Schamroth’s test or Schamroth’s window test (originally demonstrated by South African cardiologist Dr Leo Schamroth on himself[2]) is a popular test for clubbing. When the distal phalanges (bones nearest the fingertips) of corresponding fingers of opposite hands are directly apposed (placed against each other back to back), a small diamond-shaped “window” is normally apparent between the nailbeds. If this window is obliterated, the test is positive and clubbing is present.
When clubbing is encountered in patients, doctors will seek to identify its cause. They usually accomplish this by obtaining a medical history—particular attention is paid to lung, heart, and gastrointestinal conditions—and conducting a clinical examination, which may disclose associated features relevant to a diagnosis. Additional studies such as a chest X-ray may also be performed.[1]
Although many diseases are associated with clubbing (particularly lung diseases), the reports are fairly anecdotal. Prospective studies of patients presenting with clubbing have not yet been performed, and hence there is no conclusive evidence of these associations.
Clubbing is associated with:
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