Chaddock's sign

Welcome to my neurology blog, Chaddock's sign! I hope you will enjoy the site as I hope to make it as educational as possible.

Chaddock's sign can be elicited by stimulating the dorsal lateral aspect of the foot from the external mallelolus to the external edge of the foot. He first wrote of this sign in 1911, around the time of Henri Babinski. In Charles Gilbert Chaddock's observation, Chaddock's sign seemed to be superior to Babinski's sign: there was less withdrawal response, Chaddock's sign was present when Babinski's sign was not present in corticospinal tract damage and Chaddock's sign tended to remain even when Babinski's sign resolved. Thus, it was a reasonable hypothesis that Chaddock's sign was more sensitive for corticospinal tract dysfunction. Together, both Babinski and Chaddock's signs would be used in conjunction to determine corticospinal tract dysfunction. However, Chaddock's sign was never able to displace Babinski's sign as the method of choice to elicit corticospinal tract dysfunction in neurology textbooks and practice.

There are 2 reasons why I have named this blog Chaddock's sign. First and foremost, since I have started blogging late in the game, I am a small fish in a big lake and am too small to compete with the established bloggers. However, I'd hope to make an impression and assist fellow neurologists to the proportion of Charles Chaddock. Second of all, Chaddock's sign is truly a sensitive test for corticospinal tract dysfunction. I would like to thank Dr. Burk Jubelt, my mentor at Syracuse for introducing this test to me to add in my armentarium in the neurological examination.

Long live Chaddock's sign!

Reference Seminars in Neurology 2002: 22(4)