Medical Quiz

PRELIMINARY ROUND

Dr. Basalathullah

ANSWERS

1.

What is common to the following:

• Rosalia Virus Disease (RVD)

• Rigellian Fever

• The Red Death

• Torsonic Polarity Syndrome (TPS)

• Dragon Pox

• Irumodic Syndrome

Fictional/ Non-existing/ Unreal diseases!

From literature and movies:

E. A. Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death (The Red Death),

J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Dragon Pox),

Star Trek (Irumodic Syndrome, Rigellian Fever),

Torsonic Polarity

Syndrome

2.

Julius Wagner-Jauregg won the 1927 Nobel

Prize in Medicine or Physiology for his rather

crude treatment of dementia paralytica or

neuro-syphilis, especially the optic atrophy, by

introducing another disease in the body of the

patients. His advocacy of eugenics and Nazism

later downgraded his public appeal. What was

his treatment modality called?

Pyrotherapy/ Artificial fever/

Malariotherapy/ Introduction of

Plasmodium vivax

Higher than normal temperature in the

body due to malaria fever is deleterious for

the bacteria.

Patient being inoculated with malaria

parasites....

3.

Thinking of the names of 7 bald men, biting on

a lemon, pulling hard on your tongue, having

someone frighten you, drinking water with two

straws, are all the ways that have been said to

abort an episode of a benign hiccoughs.

However, there is one medically proven way

of doing so without having to take any drug.

What is the said method?

Digital Rectal Massage/

Stimulation

Who wouldn’t like that?

4.

When my mother died I was very young,

And my father sold me while yet my tongue,

Could scarcely cry weep weep weep weep,

So your I sweep and in your soot I sleep....

And so he was quiet, and that very night.

As Tom was a sleeping he had such a sight

That thousands of sweepers Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack

Were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black.

‘Songs of Innocence’, William

Blake

In 1775, a British surgeon noticed a rise in incidence of

a particular disease at his clinic in St. Bartholomew’s

Hospital. Extending on Bernadino Ramazzini’s theory

of morbis artificum, he realised that the this disease was

due to a causative factor his patients were exposed to.

His observations were ground-breaking and laid down

the fundamental principles of the aetiology of these

diseases. The extract is from Blake’s famous poem

whose title identifies the group of people who suffered

from this disease. What is the title of the poem?

The Chimney Sweeper

Sir Percivall Pott linked scrotal cancer to

the exposure of grime and ash from

chimney soot, which was earlier dismissed

as a venereal disease. The first ever

carcinogen was discovered. The sad plight

of the London’s climbing-boys led to the

passage in 1788 of the Chimney Sweepers

Act by the British Parliament, which raised

the minimum employable age to eight

years, and subsequently to fourteen.

Sir Percivall Pott, Kt.

This is not ‘cute’ by any means.

5.

What was this grotesque mask used to treat in

ancient times?

Treatment of Squint/ Strabismus

(Convergent)

'Ophthalmodouleia' by French

ophthalmologist Georg Bartisch (1535-

1636) published in Dresden in 1583.

6.

An Indian biochemist is credited with being the first

to isolate the ‘energy currency’ of the cell. His

famous contribution, however, is to the 1-C

metabolism of folic acid, and the discovery of the

widely used drug methotrexate. His stellar

contributions were not acknowledged and he was

denied tenure at Harvard. He went on to discover

another widely used drug, an anti-helminthic, which

was also adopted by the WHO. Name the drug he

discovered.

Diethycarbamazine (DEC)/

Hetrazan

Yellapragada Subbarow discovered the role

of ATP, phospho-creatinine and other high-

energy phosphates. A fungus was

named Subbaromyces splendens in his

honour by the American Cyanamid. In all

fairness, it is the ATP which should be

named after him!

7.

Iridology, Rolfing, Bowen technique, Reiki,

Alexander technique, and Macrobiotics are all

types of what?

Complementary/ Alternate

Medicine

8.

Alfred Blalock, widely known for his contributions

to shock, along with African-American surgical

assistant Vivien Thomas performed a ground-

breaking surgery in 1944 at Johns Hopkins

Hospital, that ushered in the era of modern cardiac

surgery. They developed it in collaboration with the

cardiologist, Helen Taussing. An HBO movie about

his life starring Alan Rickman won Emmy awards.

What was the condition the surgery was used to

treat?

Tetralogy of Fallot/ Blue Baby

Syndrome

Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt is done to

bypass the coarction of the aorta. Taussig

founded the speciality of paediatric

cardiology. Blalock was the Chief of

Surgery. Vivien Thomas’ contribution was

unacknowledged for several years due to

‘racism’. He served as supervisor of

Surgical Laboratories and was awarded a

doctorate in 1976.

Alan Rickman and Mos Def in

‘Something the Lord Made’.

9.

In 16th and 17th century, a chic fashion statement

was born when the epidemic of a disease swept

across Europe. When Louis XIV, the King of

France and his cousin Charles II of England

starting flaunting it, it soon became an essential

part of clothing of the western European aristocrat

until late 18th century. The fashion statement also

explains the etymology of the word ‘bigwig’.

What disease was responsible for this fashion

statement?

Syphilis/ Cupid’s Disease

Also called Cupid’s disease, English

disease, French disease, pen sores, rashes

and patchy hair-loss caused due to syphilis were

hidden by

the use of powdered wigs called Perukes. The

cost of wigs increased, and perukes became a

scheme for flaunting wealth. French citizens

ousted the peruke during the Revolution, and

Brits stopped wearing wigs after William Pitt

levied a tax on hair powder in 1795.

Jamie Dornan of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ sporting a

peruke in Sofia Coppola’s movie Marie Antoinette;

when he actually did good roles...

10.

Identify the device or the type of surgery

performed with the aid of this device.

OCTOPUS

Beating Heart/ Off-Pump

Surgery

The challenge in beating heart surgery is

that it can be difficult to suture or "sew".

The surgeon must use a "stabilization"

system to keep the heart steady. Medtronic’s

Octopus, Sea Urchin and Starfish are the

various stabilizers available.

No relation to Doctor

Octopus

11.

What neurosurgical technique is being performed

on this patient?

Awake Craniotomy

This is a preferred technique for operations to

remove lesions close to, or involving eloquent

(functionally important) regions of the brain.

This allows to test regions of the brain before

manipulation and to test the patient’s function

continuously throughout the surgery.

The picture is of Brad Carter, Hollywood actor

and musician. He underwent Deep Brain

Stimulation to cure his Benign Essential

Tremors.

12.

A longest muscle in the human body is also called

“The Tailor’s Muscle”. There are three hypotheses as

to the genesis of the name: One is that this name was

chosen in reference to the cross-legged position in

which tailors once sat. Another is that it refers to the

location of the inferior portion of the muscle being

the “inseam” or area of the inner thigh tailors

commonly measure when fitting a pant. A third is that

the muscle closely resembles a tailor’s ribbon. What

muscle is it?

The Sartorius

The most fashionable muscle of the body

goes down the length of the thigh in the

anterior compartment. Its upper portion

forms the lateral border of the femoral

triangle. Derived from the Greek word

‘Sartos’, meaning tailor.

13.

What is unique about the following eponyms?

• Huntington’s disease

• Thomsen’s disease

• Jones’ fracture

• Cairron’s disease

• Trousseau’s sign

Auto-eponyms

Disease first described by scientists who

actually suffered from it.

14.

A 19th century Frenchwoman also called ‘Widow

Sunday’, had one of the most famous skin neoplasms

ever. She was successfully operated upon by the

famous French surgeon Joseph Souberbielle, who was

the personal doctor of Queen Marie Antoinette. She

sold cresson de fontaine in the streets of Paris. A wax

model of her head taken after her death is on display

at the Mutter museum of the College of Physicians of

Philadelphia, USA. What was the name of this

woman?

Madame Dimanche

Famous illustration of Hamilton Bailey and

McNeill Love’s—A Short Practice of Surgery.

She suffered from Cutaneous Horn or Cornu

Cutaneum.

15.

Which structure has the highest concentration of

protein content among the tissues of the body?

The Lens

Really! Check out Parsons’ Diseases of the

Eye, Section IV, Chapter 18: Lens

16.

Dr. Ken Heaton at the University of Bristol

designed a visual medical aid, sometimes called

the ‘Meyers scale’ to use the form of the stool as a

‘surrogate measure of colon transit time’. It is

however now believed to be of limited validity,

but remains in use as a research tool to evaluate

the effectiveness of treatments for various

diseases of the bowel, as well as a clinical

communication aid.

What is the name of this medical aid?

Bristol Stool Chart

Its basically just full of shit!

17.

In 1913, a Greek doctor emigrated to United

States to live the American dream. He worked

initially as a carpet salesman in New York. After

months he managed to secure a research position

at Cornell University. He had a rather surreal job:

studying the menstrual cycle of guinea pigs. After

a decade of scrapings and slide-study in guinea

pigs and humans, what he propounded through his

studies laid down the foundations of branch in

medicine, and his discovery has been credited

with saving the lives of countless women. What is

he famous for?

George Papanicolaou

Famous for the ‘Pap test’, a form of

exfoliative cytology. Papanicolaou’s wife

Maria let him take her own cervical

smears for months.

18.

In late 19th century, the drowned corpse of a young woman

was recovered from the River Seine in France. A pathologist

at the morgue was entranced with the enigmatic half-smile

and he had her death mask made. Before long, it became

famous and the young woman's face was sold as ‘Inconnue

de la Seine’. In 1955 Asmund Laerdal, a Norwegian

toymaker was approached to make a training aid for the

newly invented technique of CPR, he created a whole body

mannequin, and decided to put the face of a mask he saw on

the wall of his grandparents' house. What is the CPR

mannequin called as?

Resusci Annie/ Rescue Anne/

CPR Annie

‘Inconnue de la Seine’, also known in the

America as ‘La Belle Italienne’ is the other

Mona Lisa in France; and quite ironically,

although her likenesses have been mock-

resuscitated millions of times, she had to

die such a death. Resusci Anne was

developed by Laedral, and Drs. Peter Safar

and James Elam.

19.

A structural biologist of Indian origin won the

2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry ‘for studies of the

structure and function of ribosomes’. He has

recently been elected to a post currently held by

Sir Paul Nurse. He joins the likes of Sir Isaac

Newton, Sir Humphrey Davy, Sir Joseph Lister,

and The Lord Ernest Rutherford to be accorded

this honour. What seat, which he’ll take up from

30th November, 2015, was he elected to?

President of Royal Society (PRS)

Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Bt., is an

Indian-born American and British scientist,

currently working at the MRC Molecular

Biology Laboratory, Cambridge. He

revealed that he could not make it to any of

Indian Institutes of Technologies (IITs). He

will take over as PRS from Sir Paul Nurse,

the Nobel Prize winner for the discovery of

cyclins.

20.

Sergio Canavero, an Italian neurosurgeon recently

published an article in Surgical Neurology International

about a radical neurosurgical technique inspired by the

1970s experiments on Rhesus by Dr. Robert White. The

procedure proposed and outlined by him, dubbed the

‘HEAVEN’ brought him international fame and criticism.

He concedes that although ethical dilemmas are aplenty,

‘the horrible conditions without a hint of hope of

improvement cannot be relegated to the dark corner of

medicine’. What surgery does he propose to do?

Head Transplantation/ Full-body

Transplantation

Sergio Canavero claims that the time has come

to perform head transplants for incurable

diseases. The procedure involves cooling the

brain of the donor and the spine of the recipient

to very low temperatures, and among other

neurosurgical complexities involves the use of

fusogens to connect brain and the spine. The

procedure will involve a 100 surgeons working

for 36 hours at an estimated cost of $11.8

millions.

The research paper was titled, HEAVEN:

Head Anostomosis Venture Project Outline.

Not such a bad idea after

all!

21.

What is the eponymous name of these curves?

Guyton Curves

Named after the famous and the well known

legendary author of ‘Textbook of Medical

Physiology’, Arthur C. Guyton. These curves

were a part of his contribution to the

understanding of cardiac physiology. Students

are so well versed with these now-obvious graph

that the eponym is hardly ever used.