Clinical Eponyms
O-P

 

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This list is available for the Palm Pilot at Andrew Yee's website.

obturator sign
 Pain upon internal rotation of the legg with the hip and knee flexed; seen in appendicitis, pelvic abscess
Occam’s razor
 Described in 14th century, "plurality must not be posited without necessity," in other words, parsimony in diagnosis
Ogilvie’s syndrome
 Massive idiopathic non-obstructive dilatation of the colon
Ollier’s disease
 Syndrome of multiple enchondromas
Ondine’s curse
 Failure of the automatic control of ventilation, named after mythological tale in which the suitor of Neptune’s daughter was cursed to lose automatic control over all bodily functions; associated with mutation in ret proto-oncogene; associated with Hirschsprung's disease
Onufrowicz, nucleus of
 Parasympathetic neurons in the sacral spinal cord that innervate the sphincters of the bowel and bladder
Oppenheim maneuver
 A painful rub along the anterior tibia with thumb and forefinger to elicit an upgoing plantar reflex if the patient pulls away during the Babniski maneuver
Oroya fever
 From Bartonella bacilliformis, sandfly vector Phlebotomus found in valleys of the Andes mountains, 600-2500 m, profound *intravascular hemolytic* anemia of a few weeks’ duration, associated with lesions called verruga peruana resembling Kaposi’s sarcoma; aka Carrión’s disease
Ortner’s syndrome
 Hoarseness from compression of left recurrent laryngeal nerve by a greatly dilated left atrium (e.g., in mitral stenosis), enlarged tracheobronchial lymph nodes and dilated pulmonary artery
Ortolani’s sign
 In congenital hip dislocation, rotate hip with patient in supine position and hip abducted; a "clunk" or "click" represents congenitally dislocated hip
Osborn wave
 EKG with distinctive convex "hump" at J point associated with hypothermia
Osglood-Schlatter’s disease
 Epiphysitis of tibial tubercle resulting from repeated powerful contractions of the quadriceps seen in adolescents with open physis
Osler’s nodes
 Tender to painful, purplish, split pea-sized, subcutaneous nodules in the pulp of the fingers and/or toes and thenar and hypothenar eminences; transient, disappearing within several days (5% of patients); in acute bacterial endocarditis, associated with minute infective emboli; aspiration may reveal the causative organism; in subacute bacterial endocarditis, associated with immune complexes and small-vessel arteritis of skin
Osler’s sign
 Palpable brachial or radial artery when cuff > systolic pressure
Osler-Weber-Rendu disease
 Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, larger lesions can be a source of chronic blood loss, systemic emboli, hypoxemia, hepatic dysfunction, and a high-output cardiac failure; important risk factor for brain abscess, especially in affected patients with clubbing, cyanosis, and/or polycythemia; bust out aminocaproic acid (an antifibrinolytic agent)
Ota, nevus of
 Pigmentation mostly involves the skin and mucous membranes innervated by the first and second branches of the trigeminal nerve
Ouchterlony reaction
 Double diffusion with antigen and antibody stuff

 

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Paget’s disease of bone
 Osteitis deformans, characterized by an initial osteolytic stage followed by a mixed osteoclastic-osteoblastic stage, which ends with a predominance of osteoblastic activity and evolves ultimately into a burnt-out quiescent osteosclerotic stage; increased alkaline phosphatase and increased urine hydroxyproline
Pancoast’s tumor
 Apical lung cancers in the superior pulmonary sulcus tend to invade the neural structures around the trachea, including the cervical sympathetic plexus, and produce a group of clinical findings that include severe pain in the distribution of the ulnar nerve and Horner’s syndrome on the same side of the lesion
Paneth cells
 In small intestine crypts, cells with apically oriented bright eosinophilic granules and which appear to play a role in the mucosal immune system
Pap smear
 Developed by Papanicolaou, reported in 1941
Papez circuit
 Pathway from subiculum to the mamillary body and back to the cingulate gyrus believed to play a role in emotion (initially) and memory
Pappenheimer bodies
 Small dark blue irregularly shaped granules often in clusters, composed of iron, seen in sideroblastic anemia following splenectomy
Parinaud’s oculoglandular syndrome
 Preauricular node enlargement associated with chronic granulomatous conjunctivitis
Parinaud’s syndrome
 Dorsal midbrain syndrome with supranuclear vertical gaze disorder from damage to posterior commissure with loss of upgaze, convergence-retraction nystagmus, downwards ocular deviation, lid retraction, due to hydrocephalus from aqueductal stenosis, pineal region tumors
Parkland formula
 Total body surface area % burned x kg x 4; _ in first 8 hours, second _ given next 16 hours
Parry-Romberg syndrome
 Acquired progressive hemifacial atrophy
Parsonage-Turner syndrome
 Acute brachial neuritis
Pastia’s sign
 Associated with scarlet fever (GAS or S. aureus rarely); finely punctate erythema has become confluent (scarlatiniform) on the lower trunk and thighs with petechiae having a linear configuration in the inguinal regions
Patau’s syndrome
 Trisomy 13, mental retardation, microcephaly, microphthalmia, brain abnormalities, cleft lip and palate, polydactyly, rocker-bottom feet, and congenital heart disease
Patrick sign
 Hip pain on external rotation of the hip in hip joint disease that may refer pain to back and thighs
Paul-Bunnell-Davidsohn test
 Extension of classic Paul-Bunnell test for heterophil antibody; antibodies not absorbed by guinea pig kidney cells but cause sheep erythrocytes to agglutinate
Pautrier’s microabscesses
 Q.v. Sézary-Lutzner cells
Pearson syndrome
 Refractory sideroblastic anemia with vacuolization of marrow precursors and exocrine pancreatic dysfunction from mitochondrial DNA mutation
Pel-Ebstein fever
 In Hodgkin’s disease, unusual systemic manifestation of a periodic fever that is present for some days, remits, and then returns
Pelger-Hüet anomaly
 Seen in blood of AML (e.g., M2) or myelodysplastic syndromes or inherited as autosomal recessive trait and maybe sideroblastic
Pelizeus-Merzbacher disease
 Mutation in proteolipid protein on X chromosome, a major protein in CNS myelin; results in hypomyelination confined to the CNS, whitespread white matter dysfunction, leading to seizures, mental retardation, and death in childhood; see "tigroid" appearance on tissue sections stained for myelin
Pendred’s syndrome
 Autosomal recessive goiter and congenital sensorineural deafness from mutation in pendrin, a transport protein that affects organification of thyroglobulin; pendrin involved in transport of chloride and iodide
Peutz-Jeghers syndrome
 Rare AD syndrome characterized by multiple hamartomatous polyps scattered throughout the entire GI tract and melanotic mucosal and cutaneous pigmentation around the lips, oral mucosa, face, genitalia, and palmar surfaces; patients have increased risk of carcinomas of pancreas, breast, lung, ovary, and uterus
Peyronie’s disease
 Penile fibromatosis, a palpable induration or mass appears on the dorsolateral aspect of the penis. It may cause eventually abnormal curvature of the shaft or constriction of the urethra, or both
Pfannenstiel’s incision
 Low transverse abdominal incision with retraction of the rectus muscles laterally, used in ob/gyn procedures
Pfeiffer bacterium
 H. influenza, found in respiratory tracts of people ill with flu in 1890
Pfeiffer syndrome
 Craniosynostoses as well as limb defects, mutations in FGFR1, broad thumbs, broad great toes
Phalen’s maneuver
 Median nerve compression, palmar flexion of the wrist for 1 minute exacerbates or reproduces symptoms; 75% sens 47% spec
pheochromactyoma rule of 10s
 10% bilateral, 10% malignant, 10% in children, 10% extraadrenal, 10% have multiple tumors
pheochromacytoma triad
 1. palpitations 2. headache 3. episodic diaphoresis
Philadelphia chromosome
 Seen in 95% of chronic myelogenous leukemia (210 kD tyrosine kinase), 2-5% childhood ALL (180 kD TK), higher percent in adult; reciprocal and balanced translocation between chr22 (bcr, breakpoint cluster region) and chr9 (c-abl); c-abl-bcr encodes a chimeric protein with tyrosine kinase activity; genomic imprinting, chr9 paternal and chr22 maternal
Pick bodies
 In neurons, cytoplasmic, round to oval, filamentous inclusions that strongly stain with silver, weakly eosinophilic; composed of neurofilaments, vesiculated endoplasmic reticulum, and paired helical filaments that are immunocytochemically similar to those found in Alzheimer’s; don’t survive death of host neuron like they do in Alzheimer’s
Pick cells
 Characteristic swelling of neurons in Pick’s disease
Pick’s disease
 More frequent in women, characterized by marked cortical atrophy, especially of the temporal and frontal lobes, by swollen neurons, and by Pick bodies, round intracytoplasmic inclusions consisting of neurofilaments
Pickwickian syndrome
 Obesity hypoventilation syndrome defined by extreme obesity and alveolar hypoventilation during wakefulness, characterized by hypersomnolence, dyspnea, hypoxemia (cyanosis, polycythemia, and plethora), and pulmonary hypertension leading to RV failure and edema; based upon Charles Dickens’ book "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club" and the character Joe who was a "wonderfully fat boy, standing upright with his eyes closed"
Pierre Robin syndrome
 Micrognathia and abnormal smallness of the tongue, often with cleft palate, severe myopia, congenital glaucoma, and retinal detachment; French pediatrician, 1867-1950
Pittsburgh pneumonia agent
 Legionella micdadei
Plummer’s disease
 Toxic multinodular goiter
Plummer’s nail
 Onycholysis as a sign of hyperthyroidism, especially when it affects the ring finger
Plummer-Vinson syndrome
 From iron deficiency, a microcytic hypochromic anemia, atrophic glossitis, and esophageal webs (upper esophagus); 10% develop squamous cell carcinoma
POEMS syndrome
 Polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopahty, M protein, and skin changes which may be seen in plasma cell dyscrasias
Poiseuille’s law
 Flow proportional to fourth power of radius, inversely proportional to length
Poland syndrome
 Amastic associated with hypoplasia of ipsilateral musculature and chest wall
Polle syndrome
 Children who are abused by being given laxatives
Pompe’s disease
 Type II glycogen storage disease, deficiency in alpha-1,4-glucosidase (lysosomal enzyme) with consequent accumulation of glycogen, especially in the liver, heart, and skeletal muscle, characterized by cardiomegaly, muscle hypotonia, and splenomegaly, death from cardiorespiratory failure before age 3
pores of Kohn
 Connections between alveoli
Portland, hemoglobin
 Z 2 gamma 2, primitive embryonic hemoglobin
Pott’s disease
 Tuberculous involvement of the spine; occurs in about 2% of TB cases
Pott’s fracture
 Fracture of distal fibula
Pott’s puffy tumors
 Extension of frontal sinusitis anteriorly into frontal bone causing a distinct swelling
Potter’s sequence
 From oligohydramnios (from e.g. renal agenesis, amniotic leak) leading to amnion nodosum, fetal compression which leads to pulmonary hypoplasia, altered facies, positioning defects of feet, hands, and breech presentation
Poupart’s ligament
 Inguinal ligament
Prader-Willi syndrome
 Deletion of 15(q11-q13), paternally derived
Pratt’s sign
 In DVT, presence off three dilated veins or sentinel veins over the tibia; dilatation persists when legs are elevated to 45 degrees
Prehn's sign
 Elevation of painful testicle decreases pain of epididymitis
Prinzmetal’s angina
 Variant angina occurs at rest, manifests on EKG as episodic ST segment elevations, caused by coronary artery spasms with or without superimposed coronary artery disease. patients more likely to develop ventricular arrhythmias
psammoma bodies
 Papillary thyroid cancer
psoas sign
 Pain elicited by extending the hip with the knee in full extension, seen with appendicitis and psoas inflammation
Puestow procedure
 In chronic pancreatitis, surgical decompression of a dilated main pancreatic duct providing pain relief
Puestow procedure
 For chronic pancreatitis, side-to-side anastomosis of the pancreas and jejunum, thereby decompressing dilated main pancreatic duct and providing pain relief
Purtscher’s angiopathic retinopathy
 In acute pancreatitis, sudden and severe loss of vision due to posterior retinal artery occlusion with aggregated granulocytes; discrete flame-shaped hemorrhages with cotton-wool spots; also seen in fat embolization; first described in 1919 by Othmar Purtscher

 

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From Andrew Yee, Harvard Med '00