| Physical Finding | Associated cardiac condition(s) |
| Peripheral cyanosis | Heart failure, vasoconstriction |
| Central (circumoral) cyanosis | Congenital heart disease, corpulmonale, right-to-left shunting (cardiac or extracardiac), inadequate pulmonary oxygenation of blood |
| Differential cyanosis (hands/fingers pink, feet/toes cyanotic) | Patent ductusarteriosus with pulmonary hypertension & a reversed shunt, transposition of the great arteries, pulmonary hypertension, preductal narrowing of aorta |
| Orthopnea (unable to lie flat) - patient propped up with >=2 pillows to remain comfortable | Congestive heart failure |
| Turners Syndrome (dwarfism especially a short stature girl with webbed neck) | Aortic coarctation, bicuspid aortic valve |
| Marfan’s syndrome (arm span>body height) | Aortic regurgitation, mitral valve prolapse |
| Downs syndrome | Atrial septal defect, ventricular septal defect |
| Cafe-au-lait spots & mental retardation (Watson's syndrome) | Pulmonary stenosis |
| Cheyne-Stokes respirations (oscillation of ventilation between apnea and hyperpnea) | Congestive heart failure |
| Kaposi sarcoma, painful mucocutaneous ulcers, lipodystrophy (HIV patient) | Pericarditis, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, pulmonary hypertension, valvular disease, coronary artery disease |
| Low resting oxygen saturation (<93%) on a pulse oximeter on room air | Hypoventilation, ventilation-perfusion mismatch, right-to-left shunt, diffusion limitation, reduced inspired oxygen tension. |
| Low oxygen saturation corrects with 100% oxygen | Physiological shunting: hypoventilation, pulmonary edema, cardiogenic shock (anatomical shunts don’t correct) |