Crease on ear lobes

[ArdenPrimary]

I was diagnosed in Oct 23 with ectopic heartbeats. Been on 1.25 Bisaprolol since. I’ve recently noticed both my ear lobes have a diagonal crease which I have read can be a sign of heart disease. Before I call my GP was wondering if anyone had this and what the outcome was. Many thanks.

[Blearyeyed]

Are your ectopic beats symptomatic or have you other recent symptoms or medical history that would make you more concerned about heart disease or a stroke currently.There is a thing called Franks Sign, a bilateral ( on both ears) deep diagonal ridge on the ear lobe which has been linked with a possibly greater risk of cardiovascular illnesses or strokes but doctors have no idea why.

There are images you can look at on the internet if you want to compare your ear creases to those to ease your thoughts.

This is just a surrogate marker though so you would not just rely on Franks Sign as an indicator that you are definitely at a higher risk of heart problems or strokes. Many people have this sign and heart testing is completely clear throughout their life, it's just they have a slight thickening at the carotid Medina intersection.

I don't know whether I'd ring the GP just to have it checked out , I'm not sure how urgently a GP would react to it but they might want to note it. If you have an annual check with Cardiology your Consultant might be really interested in it for data purposes.

However, if you haven't seen a doctor since being diagnosed with ectopic beats in October you are probably due getting a check up to make sure that your general and cardiac health are still unchanged. If you take medications you may also require a monitoring set of blood tests by now too. So you could ring to arrange this general cardiac check with your GP now and just ask about the ears when you are there.

Interesting question though I bet most people wouldn't have heard of it before.

[ArdenPrimary in reply to Blearyeyed]

Thank you for your reply. I don’t have any other health issues and I recently had my bloods checked and they were all normal. I think it’s a case of reading things on Dr Google and worrying unnecessarily. I am awaiting a consultation with a cardiologist and will definitely mention it just to put my mind at rest.

[Lowerfield_no_more]

I was I intrigued by the comment that earlobe creases are a potential sign of heart disease so did a web search for it. It is known as Frank's sign. However the current medical thinking appears be that there is no definite confirmed link between the two, as it is for diabetes which is also linked to Frank's sign , although if course you will always find something online that definitely confirms the link. So in my view if you are doing all the right lifestyle things that reduce your heart health risk, and have no physical signs of heart disease e.g angina (or if you have they are being treated or monitored) there is not much else you can do, except to enjoy life as it comes.

[ArdenPrimary in reply to Lowerfield_no_more]

Thank you for your reply. I don’t have any other health issues and recently had my bloods checked which all came back normal. I will mention this to my GP whenever I next visit just to clear thus up.

[Nightmare2]

I have always understood that the diagonal line on ear lobes is mainly in men and just a general sign of ageing.