151 articles
Cover test
The cover test is a clinical eye examination that detects ocular misalignment (strabismus) by alternately covering each eye and watching the uncovered eye, distinguishing manifest tropia from latent phoria.
Curtis Prout
Curtis Prout (1915–2011) was a Harvard-trained American physician and leading figure in prison medicine who founded the National Commission on Correctional Health Care and wrote Care and Punishment (1988).
Dermoscopy
Dermoscopy, also called dermatoscopy or epiluminescence microscopy, is a noninvasive technique using a magnifying illuminated device to visualize subsurface skin structures and detect melanoma earlier.
Diagnostic interview
A diagnostic interview is a structured or semi-structured clinical conversation used to elicit symptoms and history and establish a psychiatric diagnosis mapped to DSM or ICD criteria.
Diagnostic Interview Schedule
The Diagnostic Interview Schedule is a fully structured psychiatric interview designed in 1978 by Lee Robins and colleagues at Washington University so lay interviewers could make DSM-III psychiatric diagnoses.
Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children
The Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC) is a structured diagnostic interview, sponsored by the NIMH, that assesses more than 30 psychiatric disorders of children and adolescents.
Dilated fundus examination
A dilated fundus examination is an eye exam using dilating drops so the retina and optic disc can be inspected with an ophthalmoscope or slit lamp.
Drawer test (orthopedics)
The drawer test is a knee examination maneuver that checks ACL and PCL laxity by pulling the tibia against the femur with the knee flexed to 90 degrees.
Dynamic posturography
Dynamic posturography is a clinical assessment that measures postural sway and balance reactions while visual and support-surface cues are perturbed, quantifying the sensory and motor contributions to balance.
Dynamometry
Dynamometry is the quantitative measurement of the force or torque a muscle produces, using handheld or fixed devices to assess neuromuscular function and track rehabilitation progress.
Dysphagia screening
Dysphagia screening is a rapid bedside pass/fail procedure, standard in acute stroke care, that identifies patients at risk of swallowing difficulty before any oral intake.
Eating Disorder Examination
The Eating Disorder Examination (EDE) is a semi-structured interview developed by Zafra Cooper and Christopher Fairburn, first published in 1987 and considered the gold standard eating disorder assessment.
Electrical cardiometry
Electrical cardiometry (EC) is a noninvasive hemodynamic monitoring method that estimates stroke volume and cardiac output continuously from changes in thoracic electrical impedance during the cardiac cycle.
Electroglottography
Electroglottography (EGG) is a noninvasive, low-cost technique that measures changes in the contact area of the vibrating vocal folds using electrodes on the neck, used in voice clinics, phonetics, and singing pedagogy.
Ergospirometry
Ergospirometry, also called cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET), is a diagnostic method that measures respiratory gas exchange and ventilation during graded exercise to quantify cardiopulmonary fitness and identify exercise-limiting mechanisms.
Examination under anesthesia
Examination under anesthesia (EUA) is a clinical examination performed while a patient is sedated, used when pain or muscle guarding prevents an adequate awake assessment.
Eye chart
Eye chart: graded optotype display for measuring visual acuity, chiefly the Snellen chart (1862, Hermann Snellen) at 20 feet and the 1982 logMAR ETDRS research standard.
Facies (medicine)
Facies (medicine): the characteristic facial appearance suggesting a specific disease, e.g., elfin facies of Williams syndrome; Latin for face; a MeSH-indexed physical examination sign, not to be confused with facial expression.
Fetal heart rate monitoring
Fetal heart rate monitoring, called cardiotocography (CTG) or electronic fetal monitoring (EFM), records the fetal heart rate and uterine contractions during pregnancy and labor, and is the most common obstetric procedure in the United States.
Finkelstein's test
Finkelstein's test, a wrist physical-exam maneuver for de Quervain's tenosynovitis, also called Finkelstein sign: thumb held in palm, ulnar deviation, pain at radial styloid; more specific than the commonly confused Eichhoff test.
Four square step test
The four square step test (FSST) is a timed clinical test of dynamic standing balance in which the patient steps over four canes in a cross pattern.
Fremitus
Fremitus (vocal or tactile fremitus) is a voice-produced vibration palpated on the chest wall; increased over lung consolidation such as pneumonia, decreased over pleural effusion, pneumothorax, or emphysema, with low sensitivity but high specificity.
Functional reach test
The functional reach test is a clinical balance assessment that measures the difference between arm's length and maximal forward reach with feet fixed, screening postural stability and fall risk.
Fundal height
Fundal height (symphysis-fundal height, SFH) is the tape-measured distance from the pubic bone to the top of the uterus, used after 24 weeks to screen fetal growth; roughly 1 cm per gestational week, with limited sensitivity.
Goniometry
Goniometry is the clinical measurement of joint range of motion in degrees, performed by aligning a goniometer with the two body segments meeting at a joint.
Gonioscopy
Gonioscopy is a slit-lamp eye examination in which a contact lens lets the examiner see the anterior chamber angle, the drainage structures central to diagnosing glaucoma.
Hand Strength
Hand strength (grip strength, handgrip strength) is the force exerted when gripping or grasping, measured with a dynamometer. Used to diagnose sarcopenia and frailty and to predict mortality; reliability ICC about 0.92 to 0.96.
Hand-held dynamometry
Hand-held dynamometry is a clinical method in which a portable force gauge held against a limb measures peak isometric muscle strength, widely used in rehabilitation and neuromuscular assessment.
Handgrip strength test
The handgrip strength test measures maximal squeezing force with a dynamometer, used as a quick bedside proxy for overall muscle function and to screen for sarcopenia and frailty.
Harvard step test
The Harvard step test is a submaximal field test of cardiovascular fitness in which heart rate recovery after stepping on and off a bench yields a fitness index.