Clinicians use nonverbal cues from patients, including their facial expression content and variability, to make inferences about how ill a patient is. However the diagnostic accuracy of facial expressions as a method of physical diagnosis hasn't previously been scientifically examined.

Research just published in EMJ is the first to examine this question, and provides proof of concept that patients with serious cardiopulmonary disease processes manifest facial expressions with decreased variability and emotional content than patients with no serious cardiopulmonary diagnosis.

EMJ editor Ellen Weber discusses the findings with lead author Jeffrey Kline, professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine.

Read the full paper: http://goo.gl/MFvaxC