Bibliographic title search for medical cardiological "signs" (eponyms).

BACKGROUND: The word "sign" refers to important physical findings or observations that are useful in diagnosis; however, there are no scientific reviews of "signs." The aim of this paper was to list and review these terms using a bibliographic approach. METHODS: We performed a title search of "sign" using a bibliographic search and review approach in MEDLINE and EMBASE. RESULTS: We detected 398 papers including 217 medical signs in cardiology. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first literature review of eponyms specifically for signs using a bibliographic method, which is useful for the discussion of the appropriateness of eponyms.