DundeeChest 3.0

Posts Tagged ‘BMJ’

There’s a latin (or Greek) name for everything in medicine. Have you heard the Amateur Transplants song about latin names, Dorsal Horn Concerto?

You must say things like defacate, micturate, copulate. You can’t say things, like……

If you’ve not heard the song, you can go to their online shop, buy the first album, and the proceeds go to Macmillan Cancer.

I digress.

What name do you give to ‘stuff the patient coughs up? If it’s blood it’s haemoptysis, if it’s anything else it’s…. Sputum? Gob? Spit? Loogie? What if it’s something a bit solid.

This week’s BMJ has a short article about a man who coughed up a big blob of tissue, which turned out to be a bit of tumour. They suggest Histoptysis as a Greek name for coughing up bits of tissue. Or Oncoptysis for coughing up bits of tumour specifically.

Will it catch on?