Brain Lesions Cancer

Most eponyms in medical terminology are for individuals who have described these conditions or anatomical parts. In a medical terminology course, for example, students might learn how American cancer pathologist Lauren V. Ackerman described a malignant lesion that became known as Ackerman's tumor; how Emanuel Libman, with Benjamin Sacks, in 1924 published a record of a persisting tissue disorder that became Libman-Sacks disease; or how French physician Henri Vincent described a throat infection now commonly known as Vincent's angina.

Brain Lesions Cancer

Thanks to medical terminology, patients suffering from Vincent's angina have an alternative to admitting they suffer from trench mouth, which is other base name for this particular throat infection. The same might be said for Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia that, in medical terms, refers to Alois Alzheimer. This German psychiatrist and neuropathologist described the affliction, after learning the brain of an asylum outpatient who had died.

Gabriele Fallopio also left a heritage in medical terminology - in his instance, having to do with anatomy. With Fallopio, who researched reproductive organs, it was the fallopian tube. The protrusion that forms in a boy's throat while puberty, that gives him a deeper voice, in medical terminology is referred to as the Adam's apple, for a piece of the forbidden fruit that some say Eve convinced him to eat in the garden of Eden.

When it comes to medical terminology, too, students learn that Abercrombie is more than a clothing line. In terminology, the name harkens to Scottish physician John Abercrombie, for whom an amyloid (or tissue protein) degeneration became known as Abercrombie's disease.

Likewise, Bang's disease has nothing to do with having affection for a particular hairstyle, and Christmas disease isn't linked to the yearly holiday. Bang's disease in medical terminology is a bacterial disease named for Danish veterinarian and bacteriologist Bernhard Bang. Christmas disease is a form of hemophilia named for a 10-year-old English patient, Stephen Christmas, who was afflicted with it and whom Oxford researchers studied.

It's more base for eponyms in medical terminology to be named for physicians and researchers than it is patients such as Christmas. Exceptions also include a neurological disease that's named for the old New York Yankees first baseman who died from it. Lou Gehrig's disease, known also as Als (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

Gehrig, at age 36, became the youngest inductee to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Because "eponymity" is thought about the opposite of anonymity, being recognized with an eponym in medical terminology can also be an honor. Students are likely to learn about Gehrig and others as part of their medical terminology courses linked with college and university programs that can lead to fast growing occupations in healthcare.