There seem to be countless eponyms in dermatology and medicine in general. They are the hardest diseases to remember because the names mean nothing (they are not at all descriptive of the disease). Many are listed here. It is useful to see multiple diseases (or signs) named after the same person juxtaposed (this may help you remember them).
| Auspitz’s sign | when slight scratching of scaly lesion reveals punctate bleeding. This suggests psoriasis but is not specific |
Blaschko’s Lines do not correspond to any known neurologic or vascular structure; probably represent the migration tracks of clones of genetically identical cells (therefore, may make one think of a mosaic phenotype of a genetic defect)
pustular psoriasis of the Barber type pustulosis palmaris et plantaris
| Bazex syndrome | AKA acrokeratosis paraneoplastica; a symmetric psoriasiform eruption that occurs in patients with tumors of the upper respiratory and digestive tracts |
Borst-Jadassohn phenomenon: a term used to describe the presence of sharply defined nests of morphologically different cells within the epidermis; may be seen in seborrheic keratosis (clonal variant), hidroacanthoma simplex, and some cases of Bowen’s disease
giant condyloma of Buschke and Lowenstein: verrucous carcinoma sub-type occurring on the glans penis
Buschke-Ollendorf syndrome: Dermatofibrosis lenticularis disseminata and osteopoikilosis
| Cockayne’s syndrome | AKA dwarfism with retinal atrophy and deafness; large (Mickey mouse) hands and feet |
| Crowe’s sign | axillary freckling in neurofibromatosis |
| Darier-White disease | aka Darier's disease |
| Darier’s sign | a finding in urticaria pigmentosa; stroking the skin over the pigmented macules causes an urticarial wheal |
Darier-Roussy sarcoid sarcoidosis of the subcutaneous tissue
Degos’s disease AKA malignant atrophic papulosis
Dennie-Morgan lines a double infra-orbital fold, often seen in atopic individuals
| Dowling-Degos disease | AKA reticulate pigmented flexural anomaly (AKA “dark dot” disease); much like acanthosis nigricans but it does not become warty or raised |
Dowling-Meara variant (of epidermolysis bullosa simplex) AKA EBS herpetiformis; the two characteristic features of this important EBS variant ore the presence of herpetiform blisters and, with age, the development of confluent palmoplantar callosities, reminiscent of acquired keratoderma
| Felty’s syndrome | triad of rheumatoid arthritis, splenomegaly, and leukopenia |
| Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome | perihepatitis in a women with a history of gonococcal or chlamydial salpingitis |
Fordyce’s spots ectopic sebaceous glands on the lips and thereabouts
angiokeratoma of Fordyce on the scrotum and less often the vulva
Fox-Fordyce disease apocrine miliaria; usually axillary
Futcher’s lines AKA Voight’s lines; pigmentary demarcation lines seen in people with dark skin
Gottron’s sign violaceous flat topped papules seen over the knuckles in dermatomyositis
Gorlin’s sign: ability to touch nose with tip of tongue (seen in ED syndrome and normal people)
Gorlin-Goltz syndrome basal cell nevus syndrome (Gorlin was a dentist)
Goltz syndrome focal dermal hypoplasia
Gougerot-Blum (BPP) the lichenoid variant of benign pigmented purpura
Gougerot-Carteaud confluent and reticulated papillomatosis
Jarisch – Herxheimer Reaction: transient reaction following antibiotic treatment of early and later stages of syphilis, and sometimes borreliosis (and others...); featuring fever chills, headache, myalgias, and exacerbation of cutaneous lesions believed to be due to liberation of endotoxin-like substances or of antigens from the killed or dying microorganisms
Hallapeau’s disease acrodermatitis contiua
| Hand-Schüller-Christian | a Langerhans cell histiocytosis: triad – diabetes insipidus, proptosis, and lytic bone lesions |
Heerfordt’s syndrome uveitis, parotid gland involvement, fever, and facial nerve palsy
Hutchinson’s sign linear melonychia that involves the proximal nail fold and periungual skin
Suggestive of melanoma, therefore must biopsy (and include nail matrix)
| Janeway Lesions | painless, macular lesions on the palms and soles in SBE (Jane wouldn’t hurt anybody) (see box below) |
| Kaposi’s sarcoma | a multifocal tumor of vascular and lymphatic endothelium (HHV-8) |
| Kaposi’s varicelliform eruption | a complication of atopic dermatitis featuring widespread infection caused by HSV |
| Kaposiform hemangioendothelioma | this and tufted angiomas are the most common lesions to develop Kasabach-Meritt phenomenon |
Kasabach-Merritt Phenomenon: hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and coagulopathy; a complication of rapidly evolving vascular lesions (most often seen in tufted angiomas or kaposiform hemangioendotheliomas)
Klippel-Trenauny Paul Trenaunay: French Neurologist (b. 1875)-Weber port wine stain of a limb associated with limb enlargement
| Koebner phenomenon | AKA “isomorphic response”; development of new lesions in response to external trauma; characteristic of psoriasis and LP (also lichen nitidus) |
Letterer-Siwe disease the acute, fulminant end of the Langerhans cell histiocytosis spectrum
Löfgren’s syndrome the classic acute presentation of sarcoidosis; bilateral hilar LAN, erythema nodosum, fever, uveitis, and arthralgias; sarcoid that presents like this has 80% chance of spontaneous resolution within 2 years
Majocchi’s granuloma deep infection with Trichophyton rubrum resembling a pyogenic abscess
Majocchi’s disease AKA purpura annularis telangiectodes
| Marjolin’s ulcer: | term used for cancers arising in sites of chronic injury or irritation such as scars, ulcers, and sinuses |
| Masson’s tumor: | AKA intravascular papillary endothelial hyperplasia (= a relatively common lesion that appears to represent a distinctive pattern of organizing thrombus) |
| angiokeratoma of Mibelli: | a form seen on fingers, hands, toes, and feet; the lesions have been aptly described as telangiectatic warts |
classic porokeratosis of Mibelli one or few annular plaques with central atrophy and cornoid lamella
| Mikulicz cells | a very large roundish vacuolated histiocyte containing numerous Frisch bacilli (Klebsiella rhinoscleromatis); seen characteristically in Rhinoscleroma |
Miescher’s granuloma AKA actinic granuloma; annular elastolytic granuloma: appears like necrobiosis lipoidica but appears on the head and neck, hands, or forearms, commonly in middle-aged, non-diabetic women (a variant of the NLD-GA spectrum)
Nikolsky’s sign pressure applied laterally to the bulla results in extension of the bulla
Osler’s nodes painful nodules on the pads of the fingers and toes in SBE (pain may be explained by the vasculitic involvement of the glomus body in the fingertip) (see box below)
| Osler-Weber-Rendu | AKA hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia; autosomal dominant |
| Pastia’s sign | linear petechiae characteristically found in the skin folds (especially antecubital fossae and inguinal area) in scarlet fever |
Perry-Romberg syndrome – facial hemiatrophy with morphea
Ramsey-Hunt syndrome herpes zoster infection involving the geniculate ganglion, resulting in blisters in the tympanic membrane and /or external ear and ear pain. Patients may also have tinnitus, nystagmus, vertigo, and hearing loss.
| Sjogren-Larson syndrome | triad: ichthyosis, spastic diplegia, mental retardation |
| Sjogren’s syndrome | sicca syndrome |
| Sneddon syndrome | livedo reticularis with cerebrovascular lesions; in many cases can be attributed to antiphospholipid antibodies |
| Sneddon-Wilkinson disease | AKA subcorneal pustular dermatosis; notable for its chronicity and recalcitrance |
| Spiegler-Fendt sarcoid | synonym for lymphocytoma cutis |
Splendore-Hoeppli phenomenon radiating or annular eosinophilic deposits of host-derived materials, and possibly of parasite antigens, which form around fungi, helminths or bacterial colonies in tissue; antigen-antibody complex, looks like an asteroid body but not in a cell (seen in sporotrichosis )
| Sturge Weber syndrome | AKA encephalotrigeminal angiomatosis |
Trousseau’s sign recurrent, migratory thrombophlebitis, affecting mainly upper extremity and trunk, associated with carcinoma of internal organs (esp. pancreas, lung, or stomach)
Tyndall Effect preferential absorption of long wavelengths of light by melanin, and scattering of shorter wavelengths that represent the blue end of the color spectrum by collagen bundles. This explains the blue color of lesions such as blue nevus
| Vilonova’s disease | variant of erythema nodosum (erythema nodosum migrans) |
| Voight’s lines | AKA Futcher’s lines |
| Von Zumbush: | generalized pustular psoriasis; in pregnant woman = impetigo herpetiformis (often with with no history of psoriasis) |
| Woronoffs Ring | as a result of ultraviolet light and coal tar therapy a white ring of vasoconstriction may develop in the normal skin adjacent to psoriatic plaques |
| Weber-Cockayne variant | the most common form of EBS, characterized by blisters largely confined to the palms and soles, which occur after trauma |
| Weber-Christianson | idiopathic lobular panniculitis |
Wickham’s striae the white lacy lines seen on the flat topped papule of lichen planus
BOLD names are names that are included in at least two diseases (especially if not alphabetically juxtaposed)
Heberden’s and Bouchard’s nodes:
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