“Филологические науки”/ 4.Синтаксис: структура, семантика, функция

Zapotochna L.I.

Bukovinian State Medical University, Ukraine

Eponyms in Cardiology

Eponyms have a long history in English, including medical English. They were already known in Galénos’ era (appr. 125 – 199 BC). The wider use of eponyms, however, started in the first half of the 19^th century, when in honour of the physician-discoverer a discovered part of the human body, disease, symptom, syndrome, factor, anomaly etc. were first named [1; 77]. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary the definition of this term is 1. the person for whom something (as a disease) is or is believed to be named; 2. a name (as of a drug or a disease) based on or derived from the name of a person. Medicine has been enthusiastic in naming tests, symptoms, and diseases after their discoverers. Some sources state there are about 8,000 eponyms; others estimate their number to be up to 30,000. In some branches of medicine, there are even eponymic dictionaries. The eponym was a convenient mechanism for attaching a label to a disease. Some diseases have been named after the persons who first described the condition or after a patient or literary figure who suffered such a disease. This usually involves publishing an article in a respected medical journal. Eponyms are not a completely new phenomenon in medicine. Some scientists consider there is no importance to use them and propose to abandon the use of eponyms because they "lack accuracy, lead to confusion, and hamper scientific discussion in a globalised world" [7; 424]. On the contrary, the opponent supports retention of eponyms, as they are "often practical and a form of medical shorthand," and "bring colour to medicine and they embed medical traditions and culture in our history" [5; 425].

The structural models of eponyms in cardiology have been analyzed. We have differentiated six structural models of eponyms in this field of medicine: 1. Proper Noun’s + Noun: Addison’s anemia, Bouveret’s disease, Buerger’s disease, Day’s test, Deetjen’s body, Dressler’s syndrome, Einthoven’s law, Hill’s sign, Fankoni’s syndrome; 2. Proper Noun + Proper Noun + Noun: Kassabach-Merritt syndrome, Kusmaul Maier syndrome, Rougnon-Heberden disease, Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome, Holt-Oram syndrome, Marchiafava-Micheli disease; 3. Proper Noun + Noun: Heyrovski procedure, Mediterranean anemia, Cooley anemia, Kappa factor;4. Noun + of + Proper Noun: foramen of Vesalius;5. Proper Noun + Noun + of + Noun: Starling’s law of the heart; 6. Proper Noun + Abbreviation + Noun: Frank XYZ leads.

The result of the research shows the most productive model: Proper Noun’s + Noun (290 terms, 69%), the model Proper Noun + Proper Noun + Noun comprises 108 phrases (26%), the model Proper Noun + Noun includes only 14 terms (3%), and the rest 8 terms (2%) are composed with the help of the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th models.

420 compound eponyms have been analyzed. All of them were divided into the following groups: 1) Functional disturbances of the cardio-vascular system (the names of diseases, signs, symptoms and syndroms): Diseases – 81 terms (19%) e.g., Bouvret’s disease, Ebstein’s disease, Moschcowitz’s disease, Loeffler’s disease; Names of symptoms, signs – 138 terms (33%), e.g., Faget’s sign, Kusmaul’s sign, Musset’s sign; Names of syndroms – 104 (25%) terms, e.g., Dressler’s syndrome, Fanconi’s syndrome, Holt-Oram syndrome; 2) Names of methods and treatment techniques, surgical operations, tests and procedures – 38 terms (9%), e.g., Dotter procedure, Heyrovski procedure, Schilling blood count, Doppler echocardiographia 3) Eponymic anatomical terms – 40 terms (10%), e.g., foramen of Vesalius, Henderson-Paterson bodies, Lauth’s canal, sinus, Lannelongue’s foramina; 4) Eponyms which describe laws in medicine (in cardio-vascular system in particular) – 13 terms (3%), e.g., Einthoven’s law, Behring’s law, Marey’s law, Starling’s law. 5) Surgical devices and apparatuses – 6 terms (1%), e.g., Cammann’s stethoscope, Kocher’s forceps, Pean’s forceps, straight Kocher’s clamp, curved Kocher’s clamp [11; 1255-1258].

Thus, in the English cardiologic terminology eponyms that transfer functional disorders of the cardiovascular system (77% of the total number) form the largest group. It should also be mentioned that eponyms which nominate the diseases of the cardio-vascular system have the appellative elements such as disease and syndrome on the basis of which 323 terms have been formed.

In medical terminology synonyms occupy a considerable place, so it is very important to medical experts to obtain faithful guidance in translation synonyms. Synonymy involving eponyms is different and has several peculiarities. In English cardiologic terminology the following structural types of eponymic synonyms were found: 1. eponym - eponym: Carrel's method - Carrel's treatment, Carvallo's sign - Carvallo's symptom, Dakin's solution - Dakin's fluid, loffler's disease - Loffler's endocarditis, Traube's corpuscle -Traube's double tone 2. Component - eponym – its explanatory components: Fidler's myocarditis - acquired isolated myocarditis, Mitchell's disease - erythromelalgia, Holton's syndrome - erythroprosopalgia, Monro foramen - interventricular foramen, Addison-Biermer anemia - pernicious anemia. In some cases three or more special names for the same concept are used, e.g., Quick's test - one-stage protrombin time test - Quicks procedure, Preyer's reflex - test - auricle reflex, Corvisart's face - syndrome - disease, Mayer's disease - syndrome - symptom - triad, Takayasu's arteritis - disease - syndrome. The choice of the term should be approached taking into account the frequency of use of terms, areas of use, their precision, single or multiple meanings, conciseness [12; 63]. As you can notice some eponyms occur in more than just one variety. In the International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems there are two eponyms named after the British physician Thomas Addison – Addison’s disease (a disorder that occurs when the adrenal glands do not produce enough hormones, in the past often combined with tuberculosis) and Addison’s anaemia (a blood disorder caused by a lack of vitamin B12, better known today as pernicious anaemia, or Biermer’s anaemia, or Addison–Biermer anaemia). Another English physician Christopher Addison has given his name to a part of the anatomy – Addison’s plane [2; 63].

WHO experts prefer descriptive multi-word terms to eponyms in processing the International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems [6]. An advantage of eponyms is that they express a complex and very complicated concept in one word. A disadvantage is that they have no meaning, which is why it is more difficult to remember them than descriptive multi-word terms. Only experts are familiar with eponyms; they have no exact scientific accuracy. Soulier syndrome is a rare inherited bleeding disorder caused by abnormal platelets and subsequent abnormal clotting. This syndrome was originally described in 1948 by two physicians who were treating a patient with a bleeding problem. The eponym Bernard – Soulier syndrome is sometimes replaced by hemorrhagiparous thrombocytic dystrophy, or Giant Platelet Syndrome. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma can be replaced by lymphosarcoma, Schőnlein – Henoch purpura by purpura rheumatic etc [3].

Occasionally an eponymous disease may be named after a patient (examples include Christmas disease, Hageman). Christmas and Hageman were the first patients described with blood clotting disorders due to a deficiency of factor IX and factor XII. Six of 12 blood clotting factors have, besides their biological and numeric designation, also an eponymic name (factor VIII – von Willebrand factor, factor X – Stuart – Prower factor, factor XI – Rosenthal factor, factor XIII – Laki-Lorand factor, factor XII - Hageman factor, IX antihaemophylic factor B - Christmas factor). Two-name eponyms are often shortened to one name only: e.g. Howell – Jolly bodies to Howell’s bodies or Jolly’s bodies; Cabot – Schleip rings to Cabot’s rings; Wiscott – Aldrich syndrome to Aldrich’ syndrome. Similarly with three-name eponyms, e.g. Chediak – Steinbrinck – Higashi anomaly, which is shortened to Chediak – Higashi anomaly. The unclear motivation of eponyms causes difficulties in their usage. They are often replaced by descriptive terms e.g. “Christmas disease" haemophilia B [10].

Thus, cardiologic eponyms on the one hand immortalize the names of the researchers and reveal the history of medicine, on the other hand, eponymous terms used out of context, of disciplinary paradigm do not always reveal their conceptual nature, which leads to semantic uncertainty. But complete elimination of these proper names seems unrealistic due to their historical and cultural value and the possibility of fast and short definitions differentiation within a separate branch of scientific knowledge. The current stage of research suggests that English cardiac eponym is an integral part of the vocabulary of the language, the use of eponyms promotes professional development of a physician, increases his/her intellectual level.

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