Congenital and Familial Clubbing of the Fingers and Toes, With a Possibly Inherited Tendency

Studies in the Physiology of Blood Vessels in Man. Iii. Some Effects of Raising and Lowering the Arm Upon the Pulse Volume and Blood Volume of the Human Finger Tip in Health and in Certain Diseases of the Blood Vessels 1

“…The distinctly different results obtained in subjects with congenital clubbing and those with acquired clubbing of the fingers leads one to the possibility that the underlying mechanisms in both types are different, although the duration of the condition may explain the differences. There is no agreement as to the microscopic pathology underlying clubbing of the fingers (9). No bony changes were noted in our cases to explain these findings and we are at present unable to account for them.…”

Clubbing of the Fingers

“…long known to be associated with grave disease." Familial clubbing, however, without clinical significance, in which the inheritance is of Mendelian dominant type, is well recognized (Horsfall, 1936;Seaton, 1938;Mendlowitz, 1942;Davis, 1946), although Witherspoon (1936) found only 14 families reported in the literature. Mendlowitz gave an exhaustive list of conditions associated with clubbing, at the same time pertinently remarking that " mere coincidence in isolated cases is not sufficient evidence of a causal relationship."…”