Are Medical Eponyms a Backhanded Compliment? Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. A chronic and painful condition of the bowel characterised by thickening, inflammation and ulceration.

Answer: Burrill Bernard Crohn

Crohn's disease is also known as granulomatous enterocolitis or regional enteritis. It is also known by other names, depending upon which area of the bowel is affected. Its cause is unknown but it occurs mainly in young adults. The symptoms may mimic appendicitis and can include pain, diarrhoea and partial obstruction of the intestine. Treatments include rest, medications such as corticosteroids and antibiotics, dietary modification and, in some cases, surgical removal of the affected section of intestine.

Burrill Bernard Crohn (1884-1983) was an American gastroenterologist. Crohn said he specialised in gastroenterology in order to help his father, who suffered from severe indigestion.

2. A fatal genetic disorder characterised by onset at middle age, unsteady gait, jerky, involuntary movements, and progressive dementia.

Answer: George Huntington

George Huntington (1850-1916) was an American physician who first described Huntington's disease or Huntington's chorea. Chorea means a nervous disorder characterised by irregular and involuntary movements. The name is derived from the Greek "khoreia", meaning dance. It is caused by a defective dominant gene on chromosome 4. There is no effective treatment or cure for Huntington's disease.

George Huntington's father and grandfather were also physicians and all three worked together in a family practice. As a child, he accompanied his father and grandfather on rounds so he was in a position to see the effects of the disease over several generations of one family of patients. With the benefit of their patient notes, he wrote a paper on chorea which earned the following review from Sir William Osler, an eminent physician of the day: "In the history of medicine, there are few instances in which a disease has been more accurately, more graphically or more briefly described."

3. A chronic bacterial disease affecting the skin, nerves, and mucous membranes, which is transmitted by direct contact but is not highly contagious; also known as leprosy.

Answer: Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen

The word leprosy is derived from the Greek "lepra", meaning scaly, scabby, rough - referring to the appearance of the affected skin. The eponymous name for leprosy is Hansen's disease, named after Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen (1841-1912), a Norwegian doctor who discovered that the disease was caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae in 1871.

This disease is not highly contagious. It is usually only contracted after prolonged and repeated close contact with an affected person. Some people who work with lepers never contract it. It is curable with antibiotics.

4. A disorder of the nerves typically associated with aging and characterised by muscular weakness and tremors, particularly in the hands.

Answer: James Parkinson

Englishman James Parkinson (1755-1824) was a multi-talented individual. As well as being a surgeon, he was an apothecary (pharmacist), geologist, palaeontologist, political activist and social reformer. In his lifetime, however, he was more famous for his work with fossils than his medical accomplishments. He provided medical care to the poor and wrote many articles and books about a wide variety of topics in an attempt to provide medical information to anybody who could read. This was at a time when only the rich could afford doctors.

Parkinson noticed the symptoms in certain people, questioned them, and studied the disease, ultimately writing "An Essay on the Shaking Palsy" in 1817. Six decades later the shaking palsy would be named after him.

5. A form of dementia which usually begins in middle age or later; it accounts for more than half of all dementias.

Answer: Alois Alzheimer

Alzheimer's disease is named after Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915), a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist. The term "Alzheimer's disease", or just "Alzheimer's", did not come into common usage until the 1970s. It is not just memory loss. It is a disease that destroys the nerve cells in the brain and thus impairs brain and body functions.

Although people use the term to refer to any form of senility, it is only one type of dementia, and, although it is associated with the elderly, anybody, even children, can be afflicted with it. Alzheimer himself referred to the condition as either presenile or senile dementia. As is so often the case, his work in this area was undervalued by his medical colleagues during his lifetime.

6. A condition typically characterised by aloofness, a lack of empathy or interest in other people, pedantic behaviours and specific obsessive interests; a type of autism.

Answer: Johann Friedrich Karl Asperger

Asperger syndrome derives its name from an Austrian physician, Johann (known as Hans) Friedrich Karl Asperger (1906-1980). Although he was a pioneer in the area of autism, his reputation has been tarnished by the accusation that he collaborated with the Nazis and may have been responsible for the deaths of disabled children as a result of their eugenics policies.

In the past, autism and Asperger's were regarded as two separate conditions but now it is considered that Asperger's is one type of autism. As a result, Asperger's is no longer officially recognised under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (of Mental Disorders), commonly known as the DSM. The DSM is a publication which contains a listing of all officially recognised mental disorders with their diagnostic criteria. It was created in an attempt to standardise the way in which mental disorders are classified and diagnosed, as well as standardising the medical terminology applied to them. The DSM is published by the American Psychiatric Association but is used internationally.

7. A genetic condition caused by an extra 21st chromosome resulting in characteristics such as a flattened facial appearance, an upward slant to the eyes, and short stature; also known as trisomy-21.

Answer: John Langdon Down

John Langdon Down (1828-1896), an English physician, is most well-known for being the first to describe Down syndrome in 1862. However, he is also notable for his reforms in the area of caring for those with mental health issues.

In the past Down syndrome has been known by a variety of names which are no longer considered socially acceptable, such as mongolism and cretinism. The correct medical terminology today is trisomy-21, which reflects the cause of the disorder - three (tri-) bodies (-somy) of chromosome number 21.

8. A hereditary condition affecting the skeletal structures (bones, muscles, connective tissues, and ligaments), resulting in a tall thin body type and elongated extremities.

Answer: Antoine Bernard-Jean Marfan

Abraham Lincoln is perhaps the most well-known sufferer of Marfan syndrome. The syndrome was named after Antoine Bernard-Jean Marfan (1858-1942), a French paediatrician, who observed the syndrome in 5-year-old girl in 1896. The term Marfan syndrome was not used until 1931. We now know that it is a genetic disorder, caused by a defect on one of the genes that affects the body's connective tissues, and therefore is not curable.

Marfan described the features as "pattes d'araign�e" (spider's legs) and called the condition dolichostenomelia, derived from the Greek: dolichos (long), stenos (narrow, slender), melos (limb) and the suffix -ia (condition of). Ironically, it is now believed that the child did not actually have Marfan syndrome but another related disorder.

9. An inflammation of the kidney, also known as nephritis.

Answer: Richard Bright

Bright's disease, also called nephritis, refers to inflammation of the glomeruli and nephrons, i.e. the structures in the kidney that produce urine. This term is non-specific and describes a number of inflammatory conditions from a variety of causes, so the name is now considered obsolete. Signs of kidney disease include proteinuria (protein in the urine), haematuria (blood in the urine), hypertension (high blood pressure), fluid and nitrogen retention.

Richard Bright (1789-1858) was an English physician who was the first to describe the signs and symptoms of kidney disease. He is often referred to as the "father of nephrology" because of his extensive research in this area of medicine. In 1837, he was appointed Physician Extraordinary to Queen Victoria upon her accession to the throne.

10. A blood disorder which is the most common hereditary blood-clotting disorder in humans.

Answer: Erik Adolf von Willebrand

Von Willebrand's disease (VWD) is an inherited clotting disorder of the blood. Although VWD is much more common than haemophilia, the bleeding tends to be a lot less severe. It is autosomal dominant - this means that the gene which causes the disorder is an autosome (specifically chromosome 12) and not a sex chromosome (X or Y), and that a person only has to inherit the gene from one parent for the disease to be apparent. There are three different types of VWD and it affects some breeds of dogs as well.

Erik Adolf von Willebrand (1870-1949) was a Finnish physician. Although he is best known for his work in haematology, he also pioneered research in obesity, gout, diabetes, and metabolism.

Source: Author MotherGoose

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Questions		Choices
1. A chronic and painful condition of the bowel characterised by thickening, inflammation and ulceration.		Antoine Bernard-Jean Marfan
2. A fatal genetic disorder characterised by onset at middle age, unsteady gait, jerky, involuntary movements, and progressive dementia.		Burrill Bernard Crohn
3. A chronic bacterial disease affecting the skin, nerves, and mucous membranes, which is transmitted by direct contact but is not highly contagious; also known as leprosy.		Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen
4. A disorder of the nerves typically associated with aging and characterised by muscular weakness and tremors, particularly in the hands.		Erik Adolf von Willebrand
5. A form of dementia which usually begins in middle age or later; it accounts for more than half of all dementias.		John Langdon Down
6. A condition typically characterised by aloofness, a lack of empathy or interest in other people, pedantic behaviours and specific obsessive interests; a type of autism.		George Huntington
7. A genetic condition caused by an extra 21st chromosome resulting in characteristics such as a flattened facial appearance, an upward slant to the eyes, and short stature; also known as trisomy-21.		Alois Alzheimer
8. A hereditary condition affecting the skeletal structures (bones, muscles, connective tissues, and ligaments), resulting in a tall thin body type and elongated extremities.		James Parkinson
9. An inflammation of the kidney, also known as nephritis.		Johann Friedrich Karl Asperger
10. A blood disorder which is the most common hereditary blood-clotting disorder in humans.		Richard Bright

Having a horrible disease named after you really doesn't seem all that flattering to me. Match the doctor with the description of the unpleasant medical condition named after them.