Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia.
Question 1
- What is Albers-Schonberg Disease?
- Albers-Schonberg Disease is a type of osteopetrosis – a rare congenital disorder in which the bones become extremely dense, hard, and brittle. It is characterized in each of its forms by defective osteoclast function
- Osteopetrosis is also known as Generalized Congenital Osteosclerosis, Ivory Bones, Marble Bone Disease and Osteosclerosis Fragilis Generalisata
Osteopetrosis - click to enlarge
Question 2
- What is heliotherapy?
- Treatment of disease by exposure to the sun.
- In Greek mythology, Helios was the god of the Sun, the charioteer who drove the Sun across the sky each day. Hippocrates was a great advocate of the Sun’s healing properties.
- Although heliotherapy traditionally refers to treatments that use natural sunlight, the term is also applied to artificial sources of ultraviolet, visible or infrared light radiation.
- In the late 1800′s heliotherapy (phototherapy) was used to treat tuberculosis of the bones, joints and skin.
- Artificial alternatives were developed that could mimic the Sun’s beneficial effects such as the Finsen lamp, invented by Danish physician Niels Ryberg Finsen. This ultraviolet lamp allowed flexible treatment in all seasons. Its greatest success was in the treatment of lupus – tuberculosis of the skin – for which Finsen was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1903
Finsen light treatment for Lupus - 1900
Question 3
- People of which civilization or culture first reported the effects of belladonna?
- The Babylonians
- It’s taxonomic name is Atropa belladonna but it is better known as deadly nightshade.
- The name “belladonna” means beautiful woman, and may have resulted from the practice of Italian, Egyptian, and Babylonian women who used it to dilate their eyes in order to appear more appealing to prospective suitors (not that they could see who was looking at them!)
Question 4
- In whose tomb was a mummified body of a still-born suffering from Sprengel’s disease found?
- Tutankhamun’s Tomb
- Tutankhaten took the throne at age nine and was married to Ankhesenpaaten (possibly his half-sister by their father Akhenaten). Tutankhtaten changed his name to Tutankhamun and Ankhesenpaaten’s name was changed to Ankesenamun.
- Two mummified foetuses were found in Tutankhamun’s tomb and DNA tests may prove Tutankhamun’s paternity.
- The smaller foetus is five months in gestational age and just less than 12 inches in height while the other is estimated to be a birth of between seven and nine months in gestational age and measures just over 15 inches and suffered from Sprengel’s deformity with spina bifida and scoliosis.
Sprengel's Disease
Question 5
- What is Hutchinson’s triad and what diagnosis does it suggest?
- The triad is named for Sir John Hutchinson (1828-1913), who is said to have seen over a million cases of syphilis (prior to penicillin) during his career
- Hutchinson’s triad is a common pattern of presentation for congenital syphilis and consists of:
- Hutchinson’s teeth (notched central incisors and peg-like lateral incisors)
- Interstitial keratosis
- Deafness due to lesions of the 8th cranial nerve.
About Tharsa Thillainadesan
