Words

Some people really emphasize the words in medicine, and to some extent, it's true. Dysplasia, aplastic, hypergammaglobulinemia, thrombocytopenia - the meanings of these words can be inferred from knowing the etymology of its component parts. I do happen to enjoy words a lot; I'm not sure what that means, but I like learning new nifty words. One thing that fascinates me is how disease names evolve over time. Tuberculosis has been called consumption, phthisis, scrofula, tabes mesenterica, and TB. Congestive heart failure used to be called dropsy (technically, dropsy could be edema). It's fascinating to read Victorian literature and come across these diseases. And yet there are other names that aren't changed even though the names are terrible. For example, lupus anticoagulant is a ridiculous misnomer. Not all patients with lupus have lupus anticoagulant; not all patients with lupus anticoagulant have lupus. Even more importantly, it's not an anticoagulant; it's actually a procoagulant. Ah, medicine.