Tag: blood
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The spleen and melancholy
Old Democritus under a tree,Sits on a stone with book on knee;About him hang there many features,Of Cats, Dogs and such like creatures,Of which he makes anatomy,The seat of black choler to see.—Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy The spleen could be described as occupying a special place between medicine and science versus art and…
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The once fatal pernicious anemia
For much of medical history, pernicious anemia was a baffling and invariably fatal disorder. Characterized by profound weakness, pallor, glossitis, and progressive neurologic decline, it carried an ominous reputation. Its name—“pernicious”—reflected the despair of physicians who could offer no remedy. The symptoms of this disease developed gradually and were fatigue, weakness, pallor, and shortness of…
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Chlorosis, the green anemia of young women
Chlorosis was one of the most common diseases affecting adolescent girls and young women in Europe and North America during the 17th to 19th centuries. Its main features were a pale or greenish appearance, fatigue and weakness, shortness of breath, palpitations, loss of appetite, and amenorrhea or irregular menstruation. Fanny Price in Mansfield Park, Madame…
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Leukemia: White blood
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Leukemia may have afflicted humans as long as 7,000 years ago,1 but it was not diagnosed until the middle of the nineteenth century. Successful treatment would not be available for another 100 years. Peter Cullen described “splenitis acutus” with milky blood in 1811, and Alfred Armand Louis Marie Velpeau identified…
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A medical visionary
David GreenChicago, Illinois, United States The year was 1967. My father had just had his prostate removed and was having considerable post-surgical pain. On the fifth post-operative day, he collapsed suddenly and could not be resuscitated. The post-mortem examination showed multiple fresh blood clots in his lungs. I was devastated but should not have been…
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Thalassemia
David GreenGeorge HonigGeorge DuneaChicago, Illinois, United States The thalassemias comprise a large and diverse group of genetic disorders which share as a common feature a deficiency, or in the most severe forms a total absence, of one or more of the globin chains of hemoglobin. It was first recognized as a clinical entity distinct from…
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The curious history of autologous blood transfusions: Syringes and cheesecloths
Denis ChenNewcastle-under-Lyme, United Kingdom Autologous blood transfusion, the infusion of a patient’s own blood, is a relatively recent procedure. It was preceded historically by the classical descriptions of the blood by Hippocrates1 and Galen2; by the discovery of the circulation of blood by William Harvey and the description of the red blood cells by microscopist…
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The discovery of heparin
Mostafa ElbabaDoha, Qatar The sulfated glycosaminoglycan known as heparin is the most common anticoagulant used in clinical medicine. Its therapeutic role is to increase antithrombin activity. While its physiologic role in humans is not fully understood, heparin is stored and secreted from mast cells at sites of tissue injury and is believed to provide local…
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Tales of a sickler
Phebe SalamiGwagwalada, Abuja, Nigeria This piece is a work of fiction inspired by real-life stories of sickle cell disease. There are a thousand and one ways to tell a story. I guess this is just another one of those ways, my own way of telling this story… I wished I was like all the other…
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The man shackled on 4 Northwest
Andria AlbertTucson, Arizona, United States In one of the patient rooms tucked into the Northwest (NW) wing of the fourth floor of the hospital, there lay a particular man. Upon walking into his room, you would find nothing extraordinary about him. He is young, early thirties, with a head full of curly brown hair and…