This is by no means earth breaking news. I was raised in a household of medical professionals...my Dad was a cardiovascular physiologist and Mom is a radiologist. Shhot, I’ve known about clubbing of the digits as a clinical symptom of lung disease (particulary pronounced in COPD patients) since I was 5 years old. Oh yeah, they just chatted around the house about it being caused by inability to break down PGE2 but never got around to publishing it, right?
You might be surprised the discussions at mealtime. My Dad spent many years in physiological research in institutions such as McGill University, Dartmouth, University of Lund as well as Baylor School of Medicine-Dallas and the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston.
As I stated, clubbing of the digits due to pulmonary defects such as emphysema, asthma and CF has been a well documented for hundreds of years.
BTW...if you have ever had a heart attack and received the clot buster streptokinese or have ever had a P.T.C.A. (Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty) you can thank my Dad.