Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 130
Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia FFFF, introducing the Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 130
Question 1
Lady Windermere Syndrome refers to infection of the right middle lobe of the lung (or lingula) with Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) in elderly women. What predisposing activity does this eponym allude to?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
Voluntary cough suppression.
The hypothesis is that these women had chronic inflammation of the right middle lobe/lingula due to inadequate clearance of secretions from habitual cough suppression. This sets up an environment predisposed to MAC infection.
Named Lady Windermere syndrome, after a fastidious character in the Oscar Wilde play “Lady Windermere’s Fan.” They postulated that the women who developed this infection were too “proper” to cough when they got this bronchitis and so ended up with a persistent infection in the lungs.
- Oscar Wilde. Lady Windermere’s fan: a play about a good woman. 1892
- Dhillon SS, Watanakunakorn C. Lady Windermere syndrome: middle lobe bronchiectasis and Mycobacterium avium complex infection due to voluntary cough suppression. Clin Infect Dis. 2000 Mar;30(3):572-5.
Question 2
With respect to childhood exanthems, most of us will be familiar with “fifth disease”. But what are the diseases “first” though to “sixth “?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
- First – Measles
- Second – Scarlet fever
- Third – Rubella
- Fourth – Filatow-Dukes’ Disease (of dubious existence as a unique entity, may represent Staphylococcal disease)
- Fifith – Erythema infectiosum (parvovirus B19)
- Sixth – Roseola infantum (human herpes virus 6 and 7)
Question 3
What was heroin originally marketed as?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
Cough suppressant
In the late 19th century, Bayer, was searching for a non-addictive cough suppressant to replace the morphine cough suppressant syrups on the market at the time.
To that end, they began producing and marketing a diacetylmorphine syrup under the trademark “Heroin”.
Not quite the non-addictive solution they were looking for!
Question 4
Only 2 diseases have been completely eradicated. Smallpox and ..?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
Rinderpest
By that definition, only two diseases have been eradicated: smallpox and the lesser-known rinderpest.
Rinderpest, or “cattle plague”, is a viral disease that affects cattle and other ruminants.
The disease is closely related to measles and characterized by high fevers, oral erosions, lymphoid necrosis, and a very high mortality rate
Question 5
Who might be afflicted by disease spread by a Tocoloshe?
Reveal the funtabulous answer
A Zulu
This is a mythical dwarf who brings trouble, disease and theft
FFFF
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five
Dr Neil Long BMBS FACEM FRCEM FRCPC. Emergency Physician at Kelowna hospital, British Columbia. Loves the misery of alpine climbing and working in austere environments (namely tertiary trauma centres). Supporter of FOAMed, lifelong education and trying to find that elusive peak performance.