Signs		Physical sign or symptom	Differential diagnoses
Vital signs
	Blood pressure	Hypertension	Adverse effects from medication, autonomic dysfunction
		Orthostatic hypotension	Adverse effects from medication, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease
	Heart rate	Bradycardia	Adverse effects from medication, heart block
		Irregularly irregular heart rate	Atrial fibrillation
	Respiratory rate	Increased respiratory rate greater than 24 breaths per minute	Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, pneumonia
	Temperature	Hyperthermia, hypothermia	Hyper- and hypothyroidism, infection
General		Unintentional weight loss	Cancer, depression
		Weight gain	Adverse effects from congestive heart failure medication
Head		Asymmetric facial or extraocular muscle weakness or paralysis	Bell palsy, stroke, transient ischemic attack
		Frontal bossing	Paget disease
		Temporal artery tenderness	Temporal arteritis
Eyes		Eye pain	Glaucoma, temporal arteritis
		Impaired visual acuity	Presbyopia
		Loss of central vision	Age-related macular degeneration
		Loss of peripheral vision	Glaucoma, stroke
		Ocular lens opacification	Cataracts
Ears		Hearing loss	Acoustic neuroma, adverse effects from medication, cerumen impaction, faulty or ill-fitting hearing aids, Paget disease
Mouth, throat		Gum or mouth sores	Dental or periodontal disease, ill-fitting dentures
		Leukoplakia	Cancerous and precancerous lesions
		Xerostomia	Age-related, Sjögren syndrome
Neck		Carotid bruits	Aortic stenosis, cerebrovascular disease
		Thyroid enlargement and nodularity	Hyper- and hypothyroidism
Cardiac		Fourth heart sound (S4)	Left ventricular thickening
		Systolic ejection, regurgitant murmurs	Valvular arteriosclerosis
Pulmonary		Barrel chest	Emphysema
		Shortness of breath	Asthma, cardiomyopathy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure
Breasts		Masses	Cancer, fibroadenoma
Abdomen		Pulsatile mass	Aortic aneurysm
Gastrointestinal, genital/rectal		Atrophy of the vaginal mucosa	Estrogen deficiency
		Constipation	Adverse effects from medication, colorectal cancer, dehydration, hypothyroidism, inactivity, inadequate fiber intake
		Fecal incontinence	Fecal impaction, rectal cancer, rectal prolapse
		Prostate enlargement	Benign prostatic hypertrophy
		Prostate nodules	Prostate cancer
		Rectal mass, occult blood	Colorectal cancer
		Urinary incontinence	Bladder or uterine prolapse, detrusor instability, estrogen deficiency
Extremities		Abnormalities of the feet	Bunions, onychomycosis
		Diminished or absent lower extremity pulses	Peripheral vascular disease, venous insufficiency
		Heberden nodes	Osteoarthritis
		Pedal edema	Adverse effects from medication, congestive heart failure
Muscular/skeletal		Diminished range of motion, pain	Arthritis, fracture
		Dorsal kyphosis, vertebral tenderness, back pain	Cancer, compression fracture, osteoporosis
		Gait disturbances	Adverse effects from medication, arthritis, deconditioning, foot abnormalities, Parkinson disease, stroke
		Leg pain	Intermittent claudication, neuropathy, osteoarthritis, radiculopathy, venous insufficiency
		Muscle wasting	Atrophy, malnutrition
		Proximal muscle pain and weakness	Polymyalgia rheumatica
Skin		Erythema, ulceration over pressure points, unexplained bruises	Anticoagulant use, elder abuse, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura
		Premalignant or malignant lesions	Actinic keratoses, basal cell carcinoma, malignant melanoma, pressure ulcer, squamous cell carcinoma
Neurologic		Tremor with rigidity	Parkinson disease