Fact or Fiction

I don't know of any Cardiologists who check ear creases. I don't believe it to be the "single greatest predictor"... It may have some validity, but not a mainstream measurement for MI.

I bet belly creases have some validity too...:lol:

Hey!!!

The ear-crease is typical of what I call 'nurse's superstitions' that actually seems to have something to it but that I have never heard a reasonable scientific rationale. (Kind of like realizing you're heading to work the night of a full moon.)

Then my physician B-in-L gave some scientific rationale. The ear-crease, he contends is caused by aterioles getting atherosclerosis. They are like the eye-wrinkles and smile-lines that smokers typically develop early because their smoking has accelerated their atherosclerosis.

I had been onto the strange preponderance of 'ear-creased' people in CCU and CathLabs myself for years.

Papaw John

Hmmm, I'm going to start checking out my pts' ears...interesting.

Let me know what you think in the end. Thanks for the reply I was extremely greatful.

I remember back in high school learning in health class that people w/ ear creases had an increased risk of MI. Also people w/ hairy hears (outside and inside) and bald men...

Hey Y'all

One thing about the ear-crease and similar 'nurse's sign's'--they seem logical until they show up on YOUR personal physiology. I thought the ear-crease was an absolute sign of atherosclerosis. Then one day the light in the bathroom was just right as I was shaving---and maybe I had new glasses---and there were ear-creases on MY ears. Whoops!!! Suddenly there was a little room for doubt. Same as my alopecia from mid-calf to ankles--OF COURSE it's my socks; it can't be vascular disease!!!

OF COURSE NOT!

Don't ya think?

Papaw John

Can someone post a link to a pic of an ear-crease, so I know exactly what I am looking for?

I think that must be the first time in the world that those particular words were combined in such a manner. What a funny sentence to write--but I am serious!!

When you say ear creases, are you talking about a "wrinkle" on the part that typically hangs down, where most women traditionally pierce? Hmmm, I've just always associated that with old age; but now that I think about it, I wonder......I seem to remember my father having ear creases (the fellow has heart disease, to be sure, but isn't yet "elderly"). I'm off to check the mirror!

Lori

I'm just entering nursing school with an interest in cardiac nursing, and I totally don't understand why this would have anything to do with MI. Of course, I have a lot to learn, but I have an ear crease on my left lobe and that is the side that I sleep on the most and it gets mashed. Couldn't that be the cause? I mean, I have a crease on the side of my nose where my face gets smashed because that's the side I sleep on, too.

I would think it would be a pretty minor indicator...what about all the good ole standby stuff like cholesterol, hs-crp, blood pressure, etc?

But it's interesting...I sure hope that's not what it means for me, though...

Maybe an ear crease is just an indication that you are heavy, which I am...and that, in turn, is a risk factor of heart disease?

i have heard for years about the ear crease and the doll jaw, the thick creases from upper lip to chin that makes you look like a manniquin. that has also been linked to blood flow

i think that some things just go in and out of fashion and that their are no real links as a precusor . don't panic your pts or lead them into self dx