Eponyms

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Charles Bonnet Syndrome

Other Known Aliases – visual release hallucinations

Definition – symptoms of visual hallucinations that occur in patients with visual loss

Clinical Significance – these release hallucinations can be simple, non-formed images (such as lines, flashes, shapes, etc.) or the can be formed images (such as people, animals, scenes, etc.). These patients can often be missed diagnosed as psychosis or early dementia. Diagnosis is made in the absence of other psychiatric illness or other causes of hallucinations.

History – Named after Charles Bonnet (1720-1793), who was a Genevan naturalist who was a lawyer by trade, but fascinated by the natural sciences. He spent the majority of career observing and studying insects, germ theory, and philosophy. He described the eponym that bears his name in 1760 in his book “Essai analytique sur les facultés de l’âme“, where he described the hallucinations of his 87yo grandfather who was nearly blind from cataracts

References

  1. Firkin BG and Whitwirth JA.  Dictionary of Medical Eponyms. 2nd ed.  New York, NY; Parthenon Publishing Group. 1996.
  2. Bartolucci S, Forbis P.  Stedman’s Medical Eponyms.  2nd ed.  Baltimore, MD; LWW.  2005.
  3. Yee AJ, Pfiffner P. (2012).  Medical Eponyms (Version 1.4.2) [Mobile Application Software].  Retrieved http://itunes.apple.com.
  4. Whonamedit – dictionary of medical eponyms. http://www.whonamedit.com
  5. Up To Date. www.uptodate.com
  6. Bonnet Charles (1760) Essai Analytique sur les facultés de l’âme. Copenhagen: Philibert, pp 426–428

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Wernicke’s Aphasia

Other Known Aliases – receptive aphasia

Definition – difficulty in understanding written or spoken language, but demonstrate fluent speech that lacks meaning

Clinical Significance – this condition manifests due to damage to Wernicke’s area of the brain in Brodmann area 22. This region is located in the posterior section of the superior temporal gyrus of the dominant hemisphere.

History – Named after Karl Wernicke (1848-1905), who was a German physician, anatomist, and neuropathologist and received his medical doctorate from the University of Breslau in 1870. He went on to study under Ostrid Foerster and Theodor Maynert after serving as an army surgeon during the Franco-Prussian War and had a modest career in both private and academic practice, culminating as head of the University Hospital’s Department of Neurology and Psychiatry at Breslau. A proponent of the same cerebral localization theory as Broca, he described his theory of “sensory aphasia” being different from Broca’s “motor phasia” in his book Der Aphasische Symptomencomplex in 1874.

References

  1. Firkin BG and Whitwirth JA.  Dictionary of Medical Eponyms. 2nd ed.  New York, NY; Parthenon Publishing Group. 1996.
  2. Bartolucci S, Forbis P.  Stedman’s Medical Eponyms.  2nd ed.  Baltimore, MD; LWW.  2005.
  3. Yee AJ, Pfiffner P. (2012).  Medical Eponyms (Version 1.4.2) [Mobile Application Software].  Retrieved http://itunes.apple.com.
  4. Whonamedit – dictionary of medical eponyms. http://www.whonamedit.com
  5. Up To Date. www.uptodate.com
  6. Wernicke C. Der Aphasische Symptomencomplex. 1874.

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Broca’s Aphasia

Other Known Aliases – expressive aphasia

Definition – partial or full inability to produce language/communication in any form, with full preservation of language/communication comprehension

Clinical Significance – this condition manifests due to damage to Broca’s area of the brain. This region is bounded by the pars opercularis and pars triangularis of the inferior frontal gyrus of the dominant hemisphere.

History – Named after Pierre Paul Broca (1824-1880), who was a French physician and anatomist who received his medical doctorate from the University of Paris in 1844 at the age of 20. He went on to study under and assist Peirre Gerdy before becoming the youngest prosector for his alma mater in 1848. He went on to practice in various surgical and pathologic specialties culminating as Chair of Clinical Surgery in 1868 at the University of Paris. In 1861, in an effort to support the cerebral localization theory for speech, he dissected the brain of a patient with a 21-year progressive loss speech, after succumbing to a gangrenous infection of his paretic limb, where he found a frontal lobe lesion. He would go on to find similar localized lesions on 13 additional patients with expressive aphasia and called this region the “circonvolution du language”. He would later be given the posthumous eponym by David Ferrier who termed this area “Broca’s convolution”.

Other notable accomplishments include describing muscular dystrophy before Duchenne, rickets as a nutritional disease before Virchow, and the venous spread of cancer before von Rokitansky.

References

  1. Firkin BG and Whitwirth JA.  Dictionary of Medical Eponyms. 2nd ed.  New York, NY; Parthenon Publishing Group. 1996.
  2. Bartolucci S, Forbis P.  Stedman’s Medical Eponyms.  2nd ed.  Baltimore, MD; LWW.  2005.
  3. Yee AJ, Pfiffner P. (2012).  Medical Eponyms (Version 1.4.2) [Mobile Application Software].  Retrieved http://itunes.apple.com.
  4. Whonamedit – dictionary of medical eponyms. http://www.whonamedit.com
  5. Up To Date. www.uptodate.com
  6. Broca, P.P. (1861) Loss of Speech, Chronic Softening, and Partial Destruction of the Anterior Left Lobe of the Brain. Bulletin de la Société Anthropologique, 2, 235-238.

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Blumer’s Shelf

Other Known Aliases – rectal shelf

Definition – shelf-like tumor of the anterior rectal wall (Pouch of Douglas) felt on rectal examination

Clinical Significance – palpation of this “shelf” indicates implantation metastases from primary abdominal malignancy

History – Names after George Blumer (1872-1962), who was an English-American physician and recieved his medical doctorate from the Cooper Medical College (forerunner of Stanford’s medical school) in 1891. He would go onto to train under William Halstead and William Osler at Johns Hopkins Hospital at house officer. In 1906, he became professor of medicine at Yale culminating in Dean of the medical school from 1910-1920. It was during this tenure (1909) when he described his eponymous finding in an article entitled “Rectal shelf: neglected rectal sign of value in diagnosis of obscure malignant and inflammatory disease within the abdomen”.

References

  1. Firkin BG and Whitwirth JA.  Dictionary of Medical Eponyms. 2nd ed.  New York, NY; Parthenon Publishing Group. 1996.
  2. Bartolucci S, Forbis P.  Stedman’s Medical Eponyms.  2nd ed.  Baltimore, MD; LWW.  2005.
  3. Yee AJ, Pfiffner P. (2012).  Medical Eponyms (Version 1.4.2) [Mobile Application Software].  Retrieved http://itunes.apple.com.
  4. Whonamedit – dictionary of medical eponyms. http://www.whonamedit.com
  5. Up To Date. www.uptodate.com
  6. Blumer G. Rectal shelf: neglected rectal sign of value in diagnosis of obscure malignant and inflammatory disease within the abdomen. Albany Medical Annals. 1909;30:361-366.
  7. Haubrich WS. Blumer of Blumer’s Shelf. Gastroenterology. 2000;118(1):30

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Codman’s Triangle

Other Known Aliases – none

Definition – triangular area of new subperiosteal bone that is created when a bone tumor raises the periosteum away from the healthy bone

Clinical Significance – this occurs because the tumor is growing at a faster rate than the periosteum can expand, which leads to the periosteum tearing away and providing a second edge of ossification (thus making the triangle). Presence of this finding is highly suggested of a fast growing, malignancy.

History – Names after Ernest Amory Codman (1869-1940), who was an American surgeon and received his medical doctorate from Harvard University in 1895. Aside from being an accomplished surgeon, he fought for hospital reform and was an early adopter and advocate for patient-based outcomes. In fact, he created “End Result Cards” for his patients which included all diagnosis, procedures, and treatment for every one of his patients that he tracked for at least one year. He was also the first physician at Massachusetts General Hospital to institute a morbidity and mortality conference. Unfortunately, he lost his surgical privileges when he wanted to institute a plan for evaluating surgical competence. He went on to found his own hospital based on end-results and published these findings to the general public in 1916. He established the first bone tumor registry in the US and helped lead the founding of the American College of Surgeons and its Hospital Standardized Program, which eventually became the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

References

  1. Firkin BG and Whitwirth JA.  Dictionary of Medical Eponyms. 2nd ed.  New York, NY; Parthenon Publishing Group. 1996.
  2. Bartolucci S, Forbis P.  Stedman’s Medical Eponyms.  2nd ed.  Baltimore, MD; LWW.  2005.
  3. Yee AJ, Pfiffner P. (2012).  Medical Eponyms (Version 1.4.2) [Mobile Application Software].  Retrieved http://itunes.apple.com.
  4. Whonamedit – dictionary of medical eponyms. http://www.whonamedit.com
  5. Up To Date. www.uptodate.com
  6. A Study in Hospital Efficiency. Boston : Privately printed, 1916.
  7. Bone Sarcoma, an Interpretation of the Nomenclature Used by the Committee of the Registry of Bone Sarcoma of the American College of Surgeons. New York : P. B. Hoeber, 1925.

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Virchow’s Triad

Other Known Aliases – none

Definition – triad of broad categories of factors that contribute to thrombosis: hypercoaguability, endothelial injury, and stasis of blood flow

Clinical Significance – These factors should always be considered in patients with suspected DVT, PTE, or acute arterial occlusion. Thought broad, they represent a simplistic mindmap to think of differential diagnoses and causes for patients with suspected conditions.

History – Names after Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (1821-1902), who was a German physician and received his medical doctorate from the Friedrich-Wilhelms Institute in 1843. He had an interesting career in that he was a prolific writer (producing more than 2000 scientific manuscript), but also very politically charged and challenged not only the government, but also the status quo of medical education and dogmatism. This fervor allowed him to push the boundaries of what was known and being taught in medical schools and made him a well-known teacher, orator, and leader in the field of pathology. He first published his treatise on thrombosis in 1856 where he described his triad, but the eponym was not attributed to him until the mid-1900s.

References

  1. Firkin BG and Whitwirth JA.  Dictionary of Medical Eponyms. 2nd ed.  New York, NY; Parthenon Publishing Group. 1996.
  2. Bartolucci S, Forbis P.  Stedman’s Medical Eponyms.  2nd ed.  Baltimore, MD; LWW.  2005.
  3. Yee AJ, Pfiffner P. (2012).  Medical Eponyms (Version 1.4.2) [Mobile Application Software].  Retrieved http://itunes.apple.com.
  4. Whonamedit – dictionary of medical eponyms. http://www.whonamedit.com
  5. Up To Date. www.uptodate.com
  6. Virchow RLC. Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur wissenschaftlichen Medicin. Frankfurt am Main, 1 Meidinger, 1856+
  7. Bagot CN, Arya R. Virchow and his triad: a question of attribution. British journal of haematology. 2008; 143(2):180-90. [pubmed]

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Döhle Bodies

Other Known Aliases – none

Definition – light, blue-gray intra-cytosplasmic structures composed of agglutinated ribosomes most commonly found on neutrophils

Clinical Significance – These inclusions are thought to be the remnants of the rough endoplasmic reticulum and represent defects in cell production and maturation during granulocytopoesis. As a result, Döhle bodies are seen in patients with infection, inflammation, and/or high physiologic stress, but may also be seen in pregnancy.

History – Named after Karl Gottfried Paul Döhle (1885-1928), who was a German pathologist and received his medical doctorate from the University of Kiel in 1882. He joined the faculty at his alma mater (where he would remain for his entire career) as an assistant to Arnold Ludwig Heller in 1883. He was an introvert by nature and rarely attended medical conferences and published very little of his work, but was well-renowned across his university. His work with Heller on describing syphilitic aortitis was groundbreaking and what eventually brought him contemporary fame in the field of histopathology. He published his findings on his eponymous cells in an article in 1892

References

  1. Firkin BG and Whitwirth JA.  Dictionary of Medical Eponyms. 2nd ed.  New York, NY; Parthenon Publishing Group. 1996.
  2. Bartolucci S, Forbis P.  Stedman’s Medical Eponyms.  2nd ed.  Baltimore, MD; LWW.  2005.
  3. Yee AJ, Pfiffner P. (2012).  Medical Eponyms (Version 1.4.2) [Mobile Application Software].  Retrieved http://itunes.apple.com.
  4. Whonamedit – dictionary of medical eponyms. http://www.whonamedit.com
  5. Up To Date. www.uptodate.com
  6. Döhle KGP. Vorläufige Mittheilung über Blutbefunde bei Masern. Zentralblatt für allgemeine Pathologie und pathologische Anatomie. Jena. 1892;3:150-152.