Fact or Fiction

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Hello, my name is Katie and I am a nursing student. I am very interested in cardiac nursing when I complete school and was wondering if I could get some expert advice on what you think about ear creases. This is a school project as well as person interest and I would very much like an opinion. I have gotten some research showing from Modern Medicine (57, 10: 126) and the British Heart Journal (611,4: 361) that ear creases have been linked to sudden death from heart attacks and are the single greatest predictor for such cases. This study , in general, has been going on since 1973. I first became aware when my father, who had 2 major heart attacks at the age of 33 years of age, showed these features, diagonal ear creases on both ears, and his doctor at the time claimed that ear creases were a predisposing factor toward heart attacks. With the abundance of articles for and against what are the cardiac nurses view on this topic.

Thank you again.

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Specializes in Cardiac Cath and Critical Care transport.

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:

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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

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

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

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Specializes in CV Surgery Step-down.

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...

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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

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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!! :lol2:

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

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Specializes in telemetry, cardiopulmonary stepdown, LTC. Hospice.

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?

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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

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