SEARCH · Search PubMed
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Many of the disorders of the endocrine glands are known by the names of the person credited with their description. The origins of commonly used eponyms and the original descriptions are reviewed.
In 1836, Wilhelm Frederick von Ludwig described a fast-spreading, nearly always fatal infection involving the connective tissues of the neck and floor of the mouth. Named after this Stuttgart physician, the condition has been known since as "Ludwig's angina". This biographical sketch highlights the life and times of the man behind the eponym, who was lauded for his surgical prowess at the age of 19, went on to become president of the Württemberg Medical Association, and whose name and the condition he described continue to be recognized today.
Eponymous terms are in daily use in medicine. This system of nomenclature which simply commemorates a person is inconvenient, poses difficulties to students and leads to frequent mistakes in scientific writings. Nevertheless it can be helpful in completely describing a multi-symptomatic medical condition or a complex surgical procedure which otherwise would not be neatly encapsulated in a reasonably convenient word or phrase. We used Finkelstein's test as an example to demonstrate that the use of such nomenclature in clinical practice and scientific writing creates inaccuracies. We contacted 62 consultant orthopaedic surgeons and 47 specialist orthopaedic registrars of whom 53 consultant and 39 registrars responded. Three different descriptions of Finkelstein's test were used as described in current literature. Only 10 (10.7%) surgeons recognised the correct method as described by Finkelstein and 83 (89.3%) were unable to do so. The results shows that a statistically significant proportion of surgeons uses the test (p < 0.0001) but fails to identify the correct method (p < 0.0001). We also found that Finkelstein's test was inaccurately described in literature since Leao's incorrect description in 1958 (quoting Eichhoff's manoeuvre) and the mistake persisted for over 50 years before it could be accredited. Such mistakes are frequent not only in hand surgery but in other sections of medicine as well. We conclude that in the modern era of evidence based medicine, use of such trivial nomenclature should be avoided. Efforts should be made to introduce proper descriptive nomenclature, by devising criteria systems which would be easy to use and not fictitious.
On 7 March 1888 Dr Graham Steell addressed the Manchester Medical Society in the premises of the Literary and Philosophical Society in George Street, Manchester. He chose as his subject 'The auscultatory signs of mitral obstruction and regurgitation', and later that year published two papers on the same theme in the Manchester Medical Chronicle. In one he wrote: 'I wish to plead for the admission among the recognised auscultatory signs of disease of a murmur due to pulmonary regurgitation, such regurgitation occurring independently of disease or deformity of the valves, and as the result of long-continued excess of blood pressure in the pulmonary artery'. His observations were later confirmed by pathological correlation, and more cases were reported, notably by Paul White. The early diastolic murmur of pulmonary incompetence caused by pulmonary hypertension is now associated eponymously with Dr Graham Steell. We review the life and work of this physician and conclude that the original source of the observation, subsequently validated by modern techniques, was probably George Balfour of Edinburgh, and that Graham Steell was fortunate to have this physical sign attributed to him.
Anterior and posterior marginal fracture dislocations of the distal radius are unusual injuries, both of which are called Barton's fracture in the current world literature. Barton's original description delineates only the posterior marginal injury. An attempt is made to clarify the nature of these injuries by a complete review of the literature and a study of the clinical experience at UCLA Hospital from 1972 through 1975. Ten anterior and five posterior marginal fractures were treated during that period of time, constituting 2.3 per cent of all distal forearm fractures. Fractures in males typically stemmed from high velocity accidents in the younger age group and were associated with significant additional injuries. The injuries in females resulted from simple falls, generally in the older age group. Eight fractures were treated open and seven closed without complications; treatment results have not been determined yet. Eponym descriptions should be discontinued and replaced with a lucid anatomically descriptive classification such as anterior and posterior marginal fracture-dislocations of the distal radius.
The Syndrome of Mental Automatism in delusional states has been described by the French psychiatrist G. de Clérambault in 1919. It consists mainly of involuntary production of impressions and ideas, ascribed by the patient to an external influence and still occurring within himself. Phenomena like thought echo, influence delusion, thought guess belong to M.A. Actually this syndrome is largely unknown in Anglo-Saxon countries. Somewhat similar description figures in DSM-III-R under the heading 295. A2-A3. Soviet psychiatrists claim that a quite similar clinical picture has been described by Kandinsky in his monograph posthumously published by his widow in 1890. The present writer shows that a great part of what Kandinsky described was actually based on self-observation. But it is true that Kandinsky described what he calls a "psychological chasm", where thought is either imposed upon the patient or stolen from him. The present writer considers that it is more a phenomenological approach than a semiological one and he is doubtful about the actual value of eponyms.
Galen or Galenus was born at Pergamum (now Bergama in Turkey) in 129 A.D., and died in the year 200 A.D. He was a 2nd century Greek philosopher-physician who switched to the medical profession after his father dreamt of this calling for his son. Galen's training and experiences brought him to Alexandria and Rome and he rose quickly to fame with public demonstrations of anatomical and surgical skills. He became physician to emperor Marcus Aurelius and the emperor's ambitious son, Commodus. He wrote prodigiously and was able to preserve his medical research in 22 volumes of printed text, representing half of all Greek medical literature that is available to us today. The structures, the great cerebral vein and the communicating branch of the internal laryngeal nerve, bear his eponym.
The author summarizes the most well-known eponymic fractures of the ankle, with emphasis on their radiographic appearance. Interestingly, the injuries described by Dupuytren, Maisonneuve, Pott, and Tillaux all share a common mechanism.
Klippel-Trenaunay (KT) or as it is also called Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber (KTW) syndrome is a rare congenital phacomatosis of uncertain aetiology and variable expression. The classical syndrome is a triad of congenital mesodermal abnormalities characterized by cutaneous angiomatous nevus commonly called port-wine stain, venous varicosities and hypertrophy of soft tissue and/or overgrowth of bone of one or more limbs. Clinically, a diversity of phenotypes with subjacent malformations may be encountered all having in common abnormalities of the mesoblastic sheets that include angioblastic, lymphoblastic and osteoblastic lineages. Each of them may give rise to malformations that may exist alone or in an unlimited diversity of associations. We present three widely different clinical expressions of this syndrome and we support the proposal to group all these malformations under the eponym of Klippel-Trenaunay-Type (KTT) syndrome.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The syndrome first described in 1904 by the Spanish otolaryngologist, Antonio Garcia Tapia, has been variously interpreted by subsequent authors such that there is little current agreement as to the site of the lesion responsible for the condition or the specific symptoms included in this disorder. The confusion arose in part because Tapia's original patient had associated neurologic findings. Careful review of Tapia's reports reveals (1) that he regarded the syndrome as consisting of ipsilateral hemiplegia of the larynx and tongue with normal function of the soft palate and (2) that he believed the lesion resulting in these signs was outside the CNS.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.