Medical Terminology Daily (MTD) is a blog sponsored by Clinical Anatomy Associates, Inc. as a service to the medical community. We post anatomical, medical or surgical terms, their meaning and usage, as well as biographical notes on anatomists, surgeons, and researchers through the ages. Be warned that some of the images used depict human anatomical specimens.
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Georg Eduard Von Rindfleisch
(1836 – 1908)
German pathologist and histologist of Bavarian nobility ancestry. Rindfleisch studied medicine in Würzburg, Berlin, and Heidelberg, earning his MD in 1859 with the thesis “De Vasorum Genesi” (on the generation of vessels) under the tutelage of Rudolf Virchow (1821 - 1902). He then continued as a assistant to Virchow in a newly founded institute in Berlin. He then moved to Breslau in 1861 as an assistant to Rudolf Heidenhain (1834–1897), becoming a professor of pathological anatomy. In 1865 he became full professor in Bonn and in 1874 in Würzburg, where a new pathological institute was built according to his design (completed in 1878), where he worked until his retirement in 1906.
He was the first to describe the inflammatory background of multiple sclerosis in 1863, when he noted that demyelinated lesions have in their center small vessels that are surrounded by a leukocyte inflammatory infiltrate.
After extensive investigations, he suspected an infectious origin of tuberculosis - even before Robert Koch's detection of the tuberculosis bacillus in 1892. Rindfleisch 's special achievement is the description of the morphologically conspicuous macrophages in typhoid inflammation. His distinction between myocardial infarction and myocarditis in 1890 is also of lasting importance.
Associated eponyms
"Rindfleisch's folds": Usually a single semilunar fold of the serous surface of the pericardium around the origin of the aorta. Also known as the plica semilunaris aortæ.
"Rindfleisch's cells": Historical (and obsolete) name for eosinophilic leukocytes.
Personal note: G. Rindfleisch’s book “Traité D' Histologie Pathologique” 2nd edition (1873) is now part of my library. This book was translated from German to French by Dr. Frédéric Gross (1844-1927) , Associate Professor of the Medicine Faculty in Nancy, France. The book is dedicated to Dr. Theodore Billroth (1829-1894), an important surgeon whose pioneering work on subtotal gastrectomies paved the way for today’s robotic bariatric surgery. Dr. Miranda.
Sources:
1. "Stedmans Medical Eponyms" Forbis, P.; Bartolucci, SL; 1998 Williams and Wilkins
2. "Rindfleisch, Georg Eduard von (bayerischer Adel?)" Deutsche Biographie
3. "The pathology of multiple sclerosis and its evolution" Lassmann H. (1999) Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 354 (1390): 1635–40.
4. “Traité D' Histologie Pathologique” G.E.
Rindfleisch 2nd Ed (1873) Ballieres et Fils. Paris, Translated by F Gross
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The [scapula] is a flat, triangular bone that forms the posterior portion of the shoulder girdle. It is described with two surfaces, three borders, and three angles. The scapula attaches to the clavicle by way of the acromioclavicular joint and ligaments. Seventeen muscles attach to the scapula providing stability and movement to the upper extremity.
The scapula has three well-defined borders. The medial border (vertebral border) is slightly convex. The superior border has a notch, the scapular notch, and a bony protuberance called the coronoid process. Where the superior and the lateral border (axillary border) meet there is a bony protuberance (the glenoid process) which has a shallow depression (the glenoid cavity), site of the glenohumeral joint or shoulder joint. Also, the lateral border presents with a small bony process just inferior to the glenoid process, the infraglenoid tubercle.
The scapula has two well-defined angles, the inferior and the superior angle, while the lateral angle is less defined because of the presence of the glenoid process.
The surfaces or the scapula are the anterior and posterior surface. The anterior or costal surface is slightly concave, fairly smooth with some oblique ridges. Being concave, this area is known as the subscapular fossa. The posterior surface is separated in two by an oblique bony process call the spine of the scapula. The scapular spine ends superolaterally in a bony process called the acromion. Also, the spine of the scapula divides the posterior surface of the scapula into a supraspinous fossa and an infraspinous fossa.
The image is an anterior view of the left scapula. Image in Public Domain, by Henry Vandyke Carter, MD - Gray's Anatomy
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This is a medical root term arising from the Latin word [seco] meaning "to cut". The term [section] is a derivative of the same from the Latin terms [sectio] and [sectionis]. In anatomy and histology the term [section] is used to denote "a slice".
- Section: "A slice"
- Transsection: To "cut across". This is the proper spelling of the word, although 'transection" is also accepted
- Dissection:To "cut apart".
- Resection: To "cut again", used to denote "removal"
- Venesection: To "cut a vein". This term was used in the times of bloodletting
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The term is a mix of two Greex root terms, [Pneum-] meaning "air" and [thorax] for "chest". The term [pneumothorax] means "air in the chest".
A pneumothorax occurs when the parietal pleura that lines the internal aspect of the chest and the visceral pleura that lines a lung are separated by a small amount of air that penetrates the thoracic cavity. This air causes the capillary action of the pleural fluid to fail, allowing for more air to enter the thoracic cavity and the lung to collapse.
Since the pleural cavities are separate, the collapse of one lung does not necessarily failure of the contralateral lung, except in a rare anatomical variation where both pleural cavities are communicated.
A pneumothorax can be spontaneous, with no apparent cause, or caused by trauma that allows the air to enter the thorax. If blood and air enter the thoracic cavity, the condition is then called a "pneumohemothorax".
Copyrighted image property of:CAA.Inc. Artist:D.M. Klein
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This medical term is Greek and is composed of [ίδιος] (idios) meaning "self" or "one's own", something peculiar to a particular individual. This is probably why this root term is used for [idiot] or [idiocy]. The second portion of the word is also Greek [πάθος] (pathos) meaning "suffering", or "disease". The word [idiopathic] literally means "one's own disease".
The term is used today to denote a pathology that has no known cause.
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[UPDATED] The medical term [hemangioma] is formed by two root terms and a suffix. The root term [hem-] arises from the Greek word [αίμα] (a?ma) meaning "blood", the second root term [-angi-] .from the Greek term [αγγείο] (angeio), meaning "vessel” and the suffix [-oma] (ωμα), also Greek, meaning "mass", "growth”, or "tumor". The term [hemangioma] then means a “mass of blood vessels”, a description not far from the truth.
A variation of the term is [hemangiomata], where the suffix [-omata] is plural, indicating multiple hemangiomas.
In general, a hemangioma can be described as a mass of blood vessels that can be convoluted, radiated, or swollen. Usually benign, hemangiomas appear in newborns and tend to evolve, involve, and disappear in the first ten years of life.
Other types of hemangiomas can be found in adults, with a tendency to be more prevalent in females than males. There are three types of hemangiomas described:
• Capillary hemangioma. Usually form skin patches known as “strawberry hemangiomas”. See image.
• Venous hemangioma. They are characterized by a “knot” or convoluted mass of veins. Since veins are usually more dilated than arteries, they are also known as “cavernous hemangiomas”. They can be found in a subcutaneous location or on internal organs, such as the liver.
• Arterial hemangioma. Formed by arteries, they tend to radiate and form a network of arteries, hence the term “plexiform hemangiomas”
• Vulvar hemangiomata. Multiple hemangiomas in the external female genitalia. For more information, click here
The image shows a small hemangioma in the scalp of a two-year old. Image by Cbheumircanl (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
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This term describes a structure that is composed of a multinucleated cytoplasm. It is either the result of the fusion of multiple adjoining cells, or the formation (by division) of multiple nuclei in a large cell.
Since cardiac muscle is formed by separate cells that are anatomically, mechanically, chemically, and electrically connected, the cardiac muscle has been called a "functional syncytium". Functionally, cardiac muscle works as a unit.
For those interested in the etymology of the word [syncytium], it arises from the Greek and its components are the prefix [syn-], meaning "together"; the root term [-cyt-], meaning "cell"; and the suffix [-ium], meaning "layer" or "membrane"