Frivolous Friday Fun
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. The format is starting to take shape – we will be trying to post questions on:
- Rare or eponymous syndromes
- Medical history or biography
- Bizarre and ‘out there’ medical trivia to baffle your colleagues
In time we will colour code for different categories and have a blind submission poll to find the one person who actually gets all the questions correct!
Question 1
- What is osteopoikilosis?
- Osteopoikilosis is a benign, asymptomatic sclerosing dysplasia
- Most commonly seen in early 20′s, but can be seen at any age.
- Cutaneous lesions in 25%.
- Etiology unknown. Inherited and spontaneous cases occur.
- X-rays demonstrate sclerotic circular or ovoid lesions symmetrically distributed in a periarticular location
- Must be differentiated from blastic metastasis, which can also present radiographically as white densities interspersed throughout bone. Blastic metastasis
- tend to present with larger and more irregular densities in less of a uniform pattern.
- mostly affect older people (osteopoikilosis most common in people 20 years of age and younger)
Osteopoikilosis Knee
Osteopoikilosis Pelvis
Question 2
- Who was the world’s oldest Lucy?
- Austrolopithecine skeleton (3.5 million year old)
- With a mixture of ape and human features—including long dangling arms but pelvic, spine, foot, and leg bones suited to walking upright—slender Lucy stood three and a half feet (107 centimeters) tall.
Question 3
- What infectious disease, which probably featured as the bio-weapon in the Sherlock Holmes story “The Dying Detective“, is also known as the Vietnamese time-bomb and Nightcliff Gardener’s disease?
- Melioidosis
- Disease caused by infection with Burkholderia (formerly Pseudomonas) pseudomallei
- It is of public health importance in endemic areas, particularly in Thailand and northern Australia.
- Melioidosis exists in acute and chronic forms. Symptoms may include chest pain, bones and/or joints; cough; skin infections, lung nodules and pneumonia.
Question 4
- What is Bazin’s disease?
- Chronic skin disease characterized by hard cutaneous nodules that break down to form indolent necrotic ulcers leaving atrophic, pigmented scars on the calves.
- Named after French dermatologist Pierre-Antoine-Ernest Bazin
- Initially, it was considered a form of skin tuberculosis, and most frequently seen in adolescent girls and menopausal women with tuberculosis or positive tuberculin test – however, cases that appear to be unrelated to tuberculosis have been observed.
- Etiology still uncertain.
Question 5
- How did Jack Barnes determine that the thumbnail-sized carybdeid jellyfish now known as Carukia barnesi was the cause of Irukandji Syndrome?
- He stung three people including himself (read the full story here)
- After managing to catch the tiny jellyfish he decided to sting himself, his 9 year-old son and a local surf-lifesaver.
- They all developed Irukandji syndrome and needed treatment at Cairns Base Hospital.
About Tharsa Thillainadesan
Wrote this Friday Post #48 with you in mind, Cheers for Friday
http://creakysites.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/the-friday-post-48-a-collection-of-nos/