[What is the value of palpation and auscultation?].

In the diagnosis of heart disease--as in other domains of medicine--an integral approach to the patient complaints is essential. Careful observation and evaluation of his personality during medical history taking as well as an optimal clinical examination by palpation and auscultation of the heart, great vessels and lungs may lead to a semiquantitative diagnosis specially in valvular and congenital heart disease. The results of select imaging techniques may therefore be anticipated in these conditions by skilled clinical judgment alone. The palpatory and auscultatory findings are easily explained by the underlying hemodynamics. This article summarizes the most relevant clinical diagnostic clues in valvular and some congenital heart diseases.