Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 568: Chapter 568: Clubbed Fingers

"Is this... clubbed fingers?"

Li Xu immediately paused the video, repeatedly scrubbing the progress bar to get a closer look.

In the medical world, some highly skilled doctors can deduce a patient’s health by reading their palms—or to put it more professionally, through "hand diagnosis."

This wasn’t some hocus-pocus from a fortune teller; it’s a legitimate discipline within modern medicine, and a vital part of visual inspection.

Hand diagnosis involves observing the color, lines, and shape of the hands to infer the health of the body’s internal organs and identify potential diseases.

A healthy person’s palm should be light pink or reddish, with evenly distributed blood vessels and a rosy, vibrant complexion.

But when a problem arises in the body, the hands act like an "alarm system" for the internal organs, flashing the first warning signs.

For instance, prominent bulging blue veins on the thenar eminence (the base of the thumb) often suggest a risk of coronary heart disease.

Or liver palms (patchy redness on the thenar and hypothenar eminences), a classic sign of impaired liver function.

But it wasn’t just the palms; changes in the shape of the fingers were even more specific.

The most famous of these is "clubbed fingers."

Clubbed fingers, also known as digital clubbing, is a condition where the soft tissue at the ends of the fingers or toes proliferates and thickens, changing the angle of the nail bed and causing the fingertips to swell into a club-like shape.

The appearance of this sign often indicates a serious abnormality in the respiratory or circulatory system, leading to chronic hypoxia in the body’s extremities.

To compensate for the lack of oxygen, local blood vessels dilate, increasing blood flow, which ultimately leads to tissue proliferation.

According to statistics, 80% to 95% of clubbed finger cases are related to severe pulmonary diseases, such as bronchopulmonary carcinoma, bronchiectasis, lung abscess, and emphysema.

For lung cancer in particular, clubbed fingers are often one of its most important early warning signs.

Li Xu replayed the video several times, growing more certain with each viewing.

The beauty filters might have distorted her skin tone, but they couldn’t change the physical structure of her fingers.

Just then, a faint, sweet fragrance wafted over.

Song Sisi leaned in, resting her head on Li Xu’s shoulder. She glanced at the screen and said sourly, "Well now, Doctor Li, is this beauty really that captivating? You’ve watched it a dozen times already. Your eyes are practically glued to the screen."

She was a little jealous.

Usually, Li Xu wasn’t even this focused when watching his medical videos.

Li Xu smiled, wrapping his arm around her slender waist to soothe her. "Silly, what are you thinking? I was looking at her hands."

"Her hands? What’s so interesting about her hands?"

Song Sisi pouted.

"Look here." Li Xu pointed to Keke’s fingertips on the screen and explained patiently, "See how her fingertips are swollen, like little drumsticks? That’s called clubbing."

"In Traditional Chinese Medicine, it’s a sign of lung qi stagnation, blood stasis, and phlegm accumulation. In Western medicine, it’s a sign of peripheral tissue proliferation caused by chronic hypoxia. When this appears, it’s highly likely there’s a problem with the lungs, and it could even be... lung cancer."

"Huh?"

Song Sisi was startled. Her petty jealousy instantly vanished, replaced by shock and sympathy. "Such a young, beautiful girl... lung cancer? That’s just awful, isn’t it?"

"It’s not definitely lung cancer, but there’s certainly a major problem with her lungs."

Li Xu’s expression grew solemn.

As a doctor, now that he had seen it, he couldn’t just ignore it.

He thought for a moment, then opened the comment section and typed out a message:

"Hi, I’m a TCM doctor. I know this is forward, but I wanted to point out that your fingers show clear signs of clubbing, which is often a signal of pulmonary disease. I suggest you go to a hospital for a chest CT scan as soon as possible, with a focus on your lungs."

He hit send.

Keke was a major influencer with millions of followers. Her video had only been up for a short while, but the comment section was already buzzing with activity.

Most were words of praise like "So beautiful," "Sounds amazing," or "Waifu!"

Amidst all the sycophantic praise, Li Xu’s out-of-place comment was particularly jarring.

Soon, some rabid fans started to attack him:

"Oh, who’s this? Desperate for attention? Just trying to scare people to get noticed?"

"Yeah, our Keke is perfectly healthy. You’re the one who’s sick! Your whole family is sick!"

"Get lost! We don’t want jinxes like you here. Reported."

"What clubbed fingers? Her fingers are just long and beautiful. If you don’t know what you’re talking about, shut up."

Seeing these nasty comments, Li Xu shook his head helplessly.

’You can’t save those who don’t want to be saved.’ In any case, he had fulfilled his duty to warn her. Whether she believed him or not was up to her.

However, there were still some sensible people on the internet.

Soon, the tide began to turn.

"Holy crap, I just looked up clubbed fingers, and they look exactly like Keke’s."

"To the user above, stop flaming. The original commenter seems to be a real doctor. I checked his profile—he’s a TCM doctor from Feng City, and it looks like he’s pretty well-known."

"This is terrifying when you think about it... Keke really has been getting breathless easily during her recent livestreams. Sometimes she runs out of air when she sings..."

"Keke, it’s better to be safe than sorry! Please go get it checked out. It would be great if it’s nothing, but if it is something, early detection and treatment are key!"

...

Keke, having just finished recording her video, was sprawled on the sofa scrolling through the comments.

When she saw Li Xu’s comment saying she was sick, her first reaction was also anger.

It had completely ruined her good mood.

After all, who likes being told they’re sick?

"What a psycho..."

Keke mumbled, about to delete the comment and block the user.

But then, more and more rational, persuasive comments appeared, and someone even posted a side-by-side comparison picture of clubbed fingers.

Keke looked at her own fingers, then back at the pictures. Her anger slowly gave way to panic.

They looked so similar.

Besides, she really had been feeling a bit off lately.

She used to be able to sing three or four songs in a row without catching her breath. Now, she felt tightness in her chest and shortness of breath after just two songs, and sometimes she would have a dry cough.

She had always chalked it up to not getting enough rest or having pharyngitis.

’It can’t be...’

The more Keke thought about it, the more scared she became. She didn’t dare delete the comment anymore. She quickly changed her clothes, put on a mask and a hat, and hailed a cab straight for City Central Hospital.

She registered for an appointment with the Respiratory Medicine department.

She was seen by an elderly doctor.

He took one look at Keke’s fingers and his expression immediately turned serious.

"Hold your hands out flat and press your index fingers together."

The old doctor instructed.

Keke did as she was told.

When two normal index fingers are pressed together, there should be a diamond-shaped gap between the nail beds.

But her two fingers fit together seamlessly, with no gap at all.

This was a positive Schamroth’s sign, a confirmatory test for clubbed fingers.

"It is indeed clubbing."

The old doctor asked, "Does anyone in your family have fingers like this? Is it hereditary?"

"No." Keke shook her head.

"Have you had any coughing, chest pain, coughing up blood, or shortness of breath recently?"

"Yes... some shortness of breath and an occasional dry cough."

"Go get a chest CT."

The old doctor wrote out an order.

The wait for the results was long and agonizing.

An hour later, the scans were ready.

Keke returned to the consultation room with the scans, her hands trembling.

The old doctor clipped the film onto the light box, pointed to a shadow on the lung, and sighed. "Young lady, look here. There is a nodule in the upper lobe of your right lung. It has spiculated margins and a lobulation sign. The situation doesn’t look good."

"It’s highly suspicious for lung cancer. Judging by the size, however, it should still be in the early stages."

"I recommend you come back tomorrow for a needle biopsy, or you can go straight for genetic testing to get a definitive diagnosis. Then we need to arrange treatment as soon as possible."

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