Clinical Eponyms
W-Z

 

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

Waardenburg’s syndrome
 Hirschprung’s disease characterized by deafness, white forelock, abnormal pigmentation (maybe heterochromia) due to developmental defect caused by defective neural crest migration; mutation in PAX3 gene or endothelin-B-receptor gene
Wada test
 Test for hemispheric dominance for language by injecting amobarbital into carotid artery
Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia
 Marked by diffuse, leukemia-like infiltration of the bone marrow by lymphocytes, plasma cells, and hybrid forms that synthesize a monoclonal IgM, leading to macroglobulinemia; disease of old age, macroglobulinemia giving rise to visual impairment, neurologic problems, bleeding, cryoglobulinemia; hyper viscosity
Waldeyer’s throat ring
 The broken ring of lymphoid tissue, formed of the lingual, facial, and pharyngeal tonsils, commonly involved in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and rarely in Hodgkin’s disease
Wallenberg syndrome
 Infarction in posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA), lateral medulla 1. lesion in nucleus ambiguus, difficulty in swallowing and hoarseness, loss of gag reflex 2. vestibular nucleus, dizziness and nystagmus 3. trigeminal, loss of pain and temperature on ipsilateral 4. inferior cerebellar peduncle, ipsilateral limb ataxia 5. anterolateral system, reduced pain and temperature on contralateral limb 6. ipsilateral Horner’s syndrome hiccup, for reasons not known solitary nucleus may also be destroyed, leading to loss of taste on ipsilateral half of tongue
Wallerian degeneration
 Pattern of degeneration of distal portion of nerve following axonal injury with break down of axon and formation of myelin ovoids from catabolized axon fragments
Warburg effect
 In malignant transformation, increased anaerobic glycolysis leads to increased lactic acid production
Warthin’s tumor
 Papillary cystadenoma lymphomatosum, parotid gland involved, benign, more in males than females, 50s-70s
Warthin-Finkeldey cells
 In measles pneumonia, cells with multiple nuclei and eosinophilic intranuclear inclusions
Warthin-Starry stain
 A silver stain, will stain H. pylori, Bartonella henselae
Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome
 With N. meningitidis or gonococci, pneumococci, or Staph.: a form of septicemia characterized by hypotension leading to shock; DIC with widespread purpura, adrenocortical insufficiency associated with massive bilateral adrenal hemorrhage
Watson’s water hammer pulse
 aka Corrigan’s pulse in aortic regurgitation
Weber syndrome
 Medial midbrain syndrome
Weber syndrome
 Medial midbrain syndrome with ipsilateral third nerve palsy combined with contralateral hemiplegia due to peduncular lesion
Weber test
 Sensorineural loss, sound from normal ear conduct loss, sound from affected ear
Weber-Christian disease
 Relapsing febrile nodular nonsuppurative nonvasculitic panniculitis (an inflammatory reaction in the subcutaneous fat)
Wegener’s granulomatosis
 Systemic vasculitis, presumed autoimmune, defined by a clinical triad of manifestations that includes involvement of the upper airways, lungs, and kidneys and by a pathological triad consisting of necrotizing granuloma in the upper respiratory tract and lungs, vasculitis involving both arteries and veins, and focal glomerulonephritis; untreated, mean survival 5 months, 1 year mortality 82%; treat with Bactrim; 1) pulmonary hemorrhages, 2) iron def anemia, 3) glomerulonephritis
Weibel-Palade bodies
 Found only in endothelial cells of vessels larger than capillaries; granules contain von Willebrand’s factor (VIII) and P-selectin
Weigert stain
 Iron hematoxylin, preceded by a dichromate mordant, stains myelin
Weil-Felix reaction
 Proteus cell wall O antigens, such as OX-2, OX-19, and OX-K, cross-reacting with antigens of several species of rickettsiae
Well’s syndrome
 Eosinophilic cellulitis, characterized by recurrent cutaneous swellings which resemble acute bacterial cellulitis, and by distinctive histopathological changes. Skin lesions show dermal eosinophilic infiltration and the characteristic "flame figures" are composed of eosinophil major protein deposited on collagen bundles
Wenckebach block
 Second-degree AV blcok, Mobitz type I
Werdnig-Hoffman syndrome
 Infantile progressive spinal muscular atrophy autosomal recessive lower motor neuron disease that manifests clinically in infancy
Wermer’s syndrome
 MEN type I, hyperplasias or tumors of the thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal cortex, pancreatic islets, or pituitary
Werner’s syndrome
 Scleroderma-like skin changes (especially in extremities), bilateral juvenile cataracts, subcutaneous calcifications, wizened and prematurely-aged facies, hypogonadism, and diabetes mellitus; autosomal recessive inheritance
Wernicke’s area
 Important cortical center for recognizing speech, found in the superior temporal gyrus
Wernicke’s encephalopathy
 Chronic thiamine deficiency (seen in alcoholics since alcohol impairs thiamine absorption) resulting in ataxia (primarily of gait), global confusion, ophthalmoplegia, and often nystagmus; may lead to a particular focal necrotizing encephalopathy affecting the hypothalamus, medial thalamus, and oculomotor nuclear groups in the periventricular brainstem; can be precipitated by the administration of glucose to patient depleted of thiamine; after treatment with thiamine, a minority of patients have profound memory deficit -> Korsakoff’s syndrome
Westermark’s sign
 In chest film, an abrupt tapering of a vessel caused by pulmonary embolism, focal oligemia
Wharton’s duct
 Submandibular duct
Whipple procedure
 Pancreaticoduodenectomy with cholecystectomy, truncal vagotomy, choledochojejunostomy, pancreaticojejunostomy, gastrojejunostomy
Whipple’s disease
 Systemic bacterial infection characterized by fever (50%), weight loss (most common presenting symptom), diarrhea, lymphadenopathy, and polyarthritis (in 80%, first symptoms experienced) and, occasionally, by cardiac manifestations such as myocarditis, pericarditis, and endocarditis or by central nervous system involvement (10%); most commonly affects men in 40s-60s; se mall intestinal mucosa laden with distended macrophages in the lamina propria, PAS positive granules, with no inflammation; gram+ actinomycete Tropheryma whippelii
Whipple’s triad
 In insulinoma, 1) attacks precipitated by fasting or exertion 2) fasting blood glucose <50 mg/dL 3) sx relieved by glucose administration
white lines of Toldt
 The peritoneal reflections of the ascending and descending colon
Wickham’s striae
 In lichen planus, papules are highlighted by a shiny surface with a lacy white pattern
Widal test
 In salmonellosis, rise in antibody titer in patient’s serum
Williams’s syndrome
 Supravalvular aortic stenosis, mental retardation, elfin facies, association with hypercalcemia due to abnormal sensitivity to vitamin D, idiopathic hypercalcemia of pregnancy, loquacious personality, abnormally sensitive hearing
Willis, circle of
 Cerebral arterial circle, an anastomosis between the two vertebral and two internal carotid arteries
Wilms’s tumor
 WT-1, cancer suppressor gene on 11p13
Wilson’s disease
 Hepatolenticular degeneration due to mutation in gene involved in incorporation of copper into ceruloplasmin and excretion of copper into bile; Kayser-Fleischer ring; gene on chr 13, cation transporting P-type ATPase; incidence 1:200,000, diagnosis based on decrease in serum ceruloplasmin, increased urinary excretion of copper, increase in hepatic copper content; 40% have neurologic findings (Parkinson’s, psychosis) and subclinical liver
Winslow, foramen of
 Anterior portal triad; posterior IVC and right crus of diaphragm; superior caudate lobe; inferior superior part of duodenum, portal triad
Winter’s formula
 Gives expected pCO2 (respiratory compensation) in uncomplicated metabolic acidosis; expected CO2=[HCO3]*1.54 + 8.36
Wintrobe indices
 Mean cell volume; mean cell hemoglobin; mean cell hemoglobin concentration
Wirsung, duct of
 Embryologically confined to the ventral pancreas, becomes functionally the main pancreatic duct after duct fusion occurs; drains the bulk of pancreatic secretion through the major papilla
Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome
 X-linked characterized by triad of eczema, thrombocytopenia (from autoantibodies), and repeated infections; small platelets (3-5 fL); failure to express sialic acid-rich glycoprotein, sialophorin or CD15, ending in early death
Wohlfart-Kugelberg-Welander disease
 Juvenile spinial muscular atrophy (SMA III), presents in late childhood, runs a slow, indolent course, weaness greatest in proximal muscles
Wolff-Chaikoff effect
 When increasing doses of iodide inhibit organification and hormonogenesis of thyroid hormone
Wolff-Parkinson-White triad
 1) wide QRS complex, 2) relatively short PR interval, 3) slurring of initial part of QRS delta wave
Wright's maneuver
 Looking for thoracic outlet obstruction: evaluating the radial pulse at the wrist with the shoulder in external rotation and abduction, positive sign if it reproduces shoulder and arm symptoms and obliterates radial pulse
Zahn, infarct of
 In occlusion of an intrahepatic branch of portal vein, sharply demarcated area of red-blue discoloration, not infarct, not necrosis, only marked stasis in distended sinusoids, with secondary hepatocellular atrophy
Zahn, lines of
 Thrombi formed within a cardiac chamber or the aorta, may have apparent laminations, produced by alternating layers of paler platelets admixed with some fibrin, separated by darker layers containing more red cells
Zenker’s diverticulum
 A pharyngeal diverticulum from premature contraction of the cricopharyngeus muscle on swallowing, leads to progressive UES narrowing, leading to a posteriorly directed hypopharynx; causes progressive food stasis and dysphagia
Zollinger-Ellison syndrome
 Hallmark, circulating hypergastrinemia; gastric acid hypersecretion and severe peptic ulcer diathesis secondary to unbridled release of gastrin from a gastrinoma; associated with peptic ulcers and diarrhea; 60% malignant, only 20% resectable; 25% of gastrinoma patients have MEN I; >80% of gastrinomas found in gastrinoma triangle

 

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From Andrew Yee, Harvard Med '00