DERMATOLOGY EPONYMS – SIGN – LEXICON – (I)

Eponyms are used almost daily in the clinical practice of dermatology. And yet, information about the person behind the eponyms is difficult to find. Indeed, who is? What is this person’s nationality? Is this person alive or dead? How can one find the paper in which this person first described the disease? Eponyms are used to describe not only disease, but also clinical signs, surgical procedures, staining techniques, pharmacological formulations, and even pieces of equipment. In this article we present the symptoms starting with (I) and other. The symptoms and their synonyms, and those who have described this symptom or phenomenon.


"I LOVE YOU" SIGN
The appearance of this hand is very typical of infants with trisomy 18, occurring in about 50% of affected infants. The clenched hand with a tendency for the index finger to overlap the third and for the fifth finger to overlap the fourth. At times these fingers are extended, giving the appearance of the sign for "I love you" in American sign language (Fig. 1). Infants with trisomy 18 also commonly have hypoplasia of the nails on both the fingers (especially the fifth finger) and the toes [1].

IDIOPATHIC DISEASE SIGN
One not consequent upon other disease, nor upon any known lesion or injury.  Declining a commission as an army surgeon, Inman settled in Liverpool as house-surgeon to the Royal Infirmary. He obtained a good practice as a physician, and was for many years physician to the Royal Infirmary. Inman's publications on personal hygiene are practical advice.

INNOCENCE'S SIGN
In the estern region of Nigeria natives used the extract of the Calabar bean (Physostigma vevevosum) (Fig. 2) which is the seed of a leguminios plant for judical execution. However, if after ingestion the man vomited it back, then he was considered innocent [3].

DOUGLAS MORAY COOPER LAMB AGRYLL ROBERTSON
Scottish ophthalmologist and surgeon, 1837-1909 (Fig.  3). After earning his degree in 1857 from the University of St Andrews, he went to Berlin to study under Albrecht von Graefe. Robertson spent most of his medical career in Edinburgh as an eye surgeon at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and teacher of ophthalmology at the University of Edinburgh. For a while he was honorary eye physician to Queen Victoria and King Edward VII. Robertson made several contributions in the field of ophthalmology; in 1863 he researched the effects on the eye made by physostigmine, an extract from the Calabar bean (Physostigma venenosum), which is found in tropical Africa. He correctly predicted that physostigmine would become very important in the treatment of eye disorders. He also described a symptom of neurosyphilis that affects the pupils of the eye, which is known today as Argyll Robertson pupils [4].

INTERCURRENT DISEASE SIGN
A disease occuring during the course of another disease with which it has no connection.

INTERFERENCE SIGN
1. The interference of one drug with the therapeutic activity of another drug; especially a sort of drug-fastness toward full therapeutic doses of one drug conferred on a parasite by subtherapeutic doses of another drug. 2. The interference with the replication or virulence of a virus by the simultaneous infection with another that mayor may not be related. Called also preemptive immunity or interference phenomenon.

HIERONYMUS FRACASTORIUS
Physician, astronomer, a naturalist, a poet and a philosopher, 1483-1553 (Fig. 4)  In De morbis contagiosis, printed in Venice in 1546, Fracastor describes the cause of syphilis and appears as a precursor of bacteriology. Fracastor was born in 1483 within a well-known medical family. He studied the Fine Arts, Mathematics and Medicine in Padova [5][6][7][8][9].

BIEDERMAN SIGN
A dusky redness of the lower portion of the anterior pillars of the fauces in certain cases of syphilis [13].

BITOT SIGN
Bitot's spots are the buildup of keratin debris located superficially in the conjunctiva, which are oval, triangular or irregular in shape. These spots are a sign of vitamin A deficiency and are associated with conjunctival xerosis. In 1863, Pierre Bitot, first described these spots [14].

PIERRE ALAIN BITÔT
French physician, anatomist and surgeon, (1822-1888). He attended medical school in Bordeaux, qualifying in 1846. He gained his M.D. in 1848 from the faculty of Paris, and joined the anatomy department in Bordeaux. He became Professor of anatomy in 1854, and gained his Chirurgien des Hôpitaux in 1878. Bitôt published on a wide variety of topics, ranging from hare lip to studies of the best form of ligatures to use in limb amputations, the use of quinine sulphate to prevent fever following blood transfusions, as well as some aspects of cerebral anatomy and function [15].

BORSIERI SIGN
Positive if white line that results when fingernail drawn across skin subsequently turns red; seen in early scarlet fever [16,17].

GIOVANNI BATTISTA BORSIERI DE KANIFELD
Italian parasitologist, (1725-1785). Physician and medical writer. Pupil of Morgagni and Vallisnieri, taught medical clinics at the University of Pavia. He wrote, in Latin, a very popular book, Institutiones medicinae practicae (1781-1789), which was later translated into Italian and English. Borsieri recommended the use of emetic tartar against tapeworms; also, in De anthelminthica argenti vivi facultate (1753) he reported on the successful use of mercury for the expulsion of roundworms.

DEMARQUAY SIGN
Absence of elevation of the larynx during deglutition, said to indicate syphilitic induration of the trachea.

JEAN NICHOLAS DEMARQUAY
French surgeon, 1814-1875 (Fig. 5). In 1863, became the first to record the observation of microfilariae in fluid extracted from a hydrocoele (another common symptom of lymphatic filariasis) [19].

FROSTED GLASS SIGN
syn. Hair in the eye sign Inflamed and thickened eyelids which curl in upon themselves, inverting the eyelashes, which begin to scratch the cornea causing a frosted glass appearance and blindness. An indication of infection by zoonotic Chlamydia trachomatis transmited by the fly known as Musca sorbens. Also known as Frosted Glass sign [9]. There are three type of tinea capitis, microsporosis, trichophytosis, and favus (Fig. 6). Favus is caused by T. schoenlenii, and is endemic in South Africa and the Middle East. It is characterized by a number of yellowish, circular, cup-shaped crusts (scutula) grouped in patches like a piece of honeycomb, each about the size of a split pea, with a hair projecting in the center. These increase in size and become crusted over, so that the characteristic lesion can only be seen around the edge of the scab [20][21][22].

AULUS AURELIUS CORNELIUS CELSUS
(25 BC-AD 50) was a Roman writer on medicine and surgery (Fig. 7). He wrote several works, of which only one remains entire, his treatise De Medicina in eight books. Probably lived in Gallia Narbonensis.

GERDY SIGN
In typical plaques of alopecia areata, the diagnosis is easy to do, because these features are clear: precise edges, glowing skin and hair with orthostatic around as an exclamation point [23].