This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (10)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

ROBERT D. CONN, MD; RONALD H. SMITH, MD

Arch Intern Med. 1965;116(6):875-878.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

IN 1956 Muehrcke ¹ described transverse white bands in the fingernails as a reliable sign of significant hypoalbuminemia. To date these bands have remained the sole sign by which the serum albumin level may be predicted and will therefore be referred to as "Muehrcke's lines" throughout this paper.

A second sign which may be of considerable value in predicting the level of serum albumin is myoedema, which is an unusual excitability to mechanical stimulus seen in the trunk and limb muscles. As early as 1837 clinicians observed that myoedema was present in patients with chronic pulmonary disease, and through the years the phenomenon has been noted in patients with a variety of debilitating diseases.^2-4 It is the purpose of this report to point out that myoedema is also a reliable sign of significant hypoalbuminemia.

The Signs

Myoedema.

—Myoedema is elicited by striking a superficial muscle, usually the deltoid or . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
SEATTLE, WASH

From the departments of Medicine, King County Hospital and the University of Washington. Dr. Conn is a Teaching and Research Scholar of the American College of Physicians.

Footnotes
Received for publication June 1, 1965; accepted June 4.

Reprint requests to the University of Washington Hospital, Seattle, Wash 98105 (Dr. Conn).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?