Levine's sign is a clenched fist held over the chest to describe some forms of chest pain. It is named for Dr. Sam Levine who first observed that many patients suffering from chest pain made this same sign to describe their symptoms. The sign has a sensitivity of 80% for myocardial infarction (MI), i.e. in patients with cardiac pain and a heart attack, Levine's sign was positive in 80%; unfortunately, it is not very specific, as the absence of the sign in patients with cardiac pain would falsely miss 51% (Edmonstone 1995).

Reference

• Edmondstone WM.Cardiac chest pain: does body language help the diagnosis? BMJ 1995;311:1660-1. PMID 8541748.

Eponymous medical signs

whether or not the sign is present in all cases of MI does not refer to specificity, but to sensitivity. Specificity refers to how often the sign is present in diseases other than MI (ex: chocking,...).--216.189.182.240 04:34, 29 June 2006 (UTC)