Enlargement of One Sternoclavicular Articulation as a Valuable Clinical Sign of Late Prenatal (Congenital) Syphilis

The Sign of the Clavicle

“…He quotes five observers who have shown nine other cases in Athens and in Cairo. Dorne and Zakon (1935) also found the sign in each of twelve undoubted cases of congenital syphilis. Touraine et al (1932Touraine et al ( , 1933) described a case with an enlarged clavicle as a localized form of von Recklinghausen's disease of bone, but later, as the result of a biopsy, they gave evidence that long-standing syphilitic changes were present in the enlarged portion.…”

Higoumenakis’ sign in the diagnosis of congenital syphilis in anthropological specimens

“…Dorne and Zakon [21] presented 12 patients with confirmed congenital syphilis, and all bore the HS, whereas Yang [22], in his studies of six patients, remarks that "it is interesting to note that clavicle sign was present in all of them." Dax and Stewart [23] examined 64 patients with congenital syphilis and found enlargement of the sternal ends of the clavicles in 29.7% of their patients.…”

Diagnosis of Mercurial Teeth in a Possible Case of Congenital Syphilis and Tuberculosis in a 19th Century Child Skeleton

“…Differential diagnosis of B70 includes infectious and noninfectious diseases including congenital syphilis, tuberculosis, brucellosis, rickets, and fluorosis. Lesions in congenital syphilis can vary from periosteal reactions and osteomyelitis in the early stages [56][57][58] and cranial gummatous lesions and frontal bossing of the bone, destruction of the nasal bridge, a high arch palate, sternoclavicular thickening, and tibial bowing (sabre shin) in the late stage of the disease [15,16,[59][60][61]. With the exception of a possible localised periosteal reaction on the cranial vault of B70, there is minimal skeletal evidence to support the differential diagnosis of congenital syphilis.…”