Feeling a bit wound-up…feeling a bit frazzled by Friday?
Nerd Venn Diagram
Relax and unwind with some medical trivia…
Question 1
- To whom did John Hunter (1728-1793) , echoing William Harvey, give the advice:
I think your solution is just, but why think? Why not try the experiment?
- His student and friend, Edward Jenner (1749-1823)
- Jenner went on to pioneer the smallpox vaccine that some claim has ‘saved more lives than the work of any other man’
- The great physicist Richard Feynman may have been thinking of this conversation between Hunter and Jenner when he was tasked with getting to the bottom of NASA’s Challenger disaster. While warring parties within NASA argued over theory, trying to determine if failure of the O-rings in one of the solid rocket boosters was responsible for the catastrophic explosion, Feynman neatly and simply demonstrated that, yes, the O-rings may well have been the problem:
“Why think, when you can try an experiment?”
Question 2
- What ‘club-shaped‘ organism, the cause of a ‘leathery’ disease, killed about 3,500 people in the former Soviet states between 1991 and 1996?
- Diptheria
- Caused by the exotoxin of Corynebacterium diptheriae.
- An epidemic swept through the former Soviet states due to a number of factors: decreased immunisation rates and the breakdown of public health, waning immunity in adults who were vaccinated as children, poor socioeconomic conditions, population movements, and the resurgence of more toxic strains.
Korynee = Greek for ‘club’ (refers to the organism’s shape), diptherite = Greek for ‘leather’ (refers to the greyish membrane that is usually present – classically in the pharynx).
Question 3
- What is the medical term for someone who has a severe case of ‘ants in their pants’ after being given a dose of metoclopramide?
- Akathisia
- Syndrome characterized by an inability to remain seated, with motor restlessness and a feeling of muscular quivering; may appear as a side effect of antipsychotic and neuroleptic medication. [G. a- priv. + kathisis, a sitting]
Question 4
- Who might suffer from a ‘trash foot‘??
- A patient following the removal of the lower limb clamp after AAA repair if measures are not taken to get rid of atheromatous material.
- Trash feet may also occur after coronary angiography [Reference]
Question 5
- What might you ‘push bang‘?
- A ureteric calculus
- Push the ureteric calculus (stone) back to the renal pelvis then use lithotripsy to smash it.
About Tharsa Thillainadesan
