wallerian degeneration

Posted By: Kim on 2006-01-11
In Reply to: I'm having a friendly debate with a doctor, can you help me? - Jill

Subject: wallerian degeneration

I will now use a lower case. Thanks for bringing this up. I emailed Stedman's and here is their reply.

Subject
Question of capitalization of Wallerian degeneration

Discussion Thread
Response (Eric Branger) 01/11/2006 11:25 AM
Kim,

Thank you for contacting Stedman's. Please see below the response from one of our researchers, and please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,
Eric Branger
Senior Product Manager
Stedman's

The correct spelling would be lowercase. Please see below (I used underscoring for emphasis).

AAMT Book of Style, 2nd edition, page 140, states: "Lowercase disease names except for eponyms forming part of the name. Examples: sickle cell disease, diabetes mellitus, pelvic inflammatory disease, Graves disease, Lyme disease, Parkinson disease, parkinsonism."

AAMT BOS 2e, page 161, states: "Capitalize eponyms but not the common nouns, adjectives, and prefixes that accompany them. Do not capitalize words derived from eponyms. Examples: ligament of Treitz, red Robinson catheter, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Parkinson disease but parkinsonism, Cushing syndrome but cushingoid."

AMA Manual of Style, 9th edition, does clearly address this matter, as follows.
Page 233, "Most words derived from proper nouns are not capitalized. Follow the first boldface entries in the most recent edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary for nonmedical terms; follow the current edition of Stedman's or Dorland's medical dictionaries for terms used in a medical context. Examples: Addison, addisonian, Mendel, mendelian, Parkinson, parkinsonian."

NOTE: Please note Wallerian degeneration needs corrected to wallerian degeneration. Also please note that this phrase is only found in its last word position (under main entry degeneration) and there is no main entry Wallerian (or wallerian) in Radiology Words Fourth Edition.

Complete Discussion Below:

marks the location of current message within thread

I'm having a friendly debate with a doctor, can you help me? - Jill
- wallerian degeneration - Kim
- Wallerian/wallerian - Jill
- Wallerian degeneration - Kim
  - Stedman's Path/Lab Medicine, Medical Speller, Neuro/Neurosurg, etc., sm - nm
    - Wallerian degeneration - Kim
- It would be lower case "w" sm - Anony
  - and articles online have been transcribed by transcriptionists initially, and probably - BTDT
- I believe you are correct. I have 2 addl sm - CL
  - According to whonamedit.com - Kim
  - It is named after a gentleman with the last name of "Waller" - Jill
    - Then, you're right. Doc can look this up sm - CL

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Wallerian degeneration
Subject: Wallerian degeneration

My Stedman's 4th edition Radiology Words has Wallerians degeneration. Not sure what Stedman's you looked in.

Wallerian degeneration
Subject: Wallerian degeneration

I googled it this morning and I see that Dorlands does not capitalize it but it looks like a lot of medical articles do. I have found it both ways. I think I would let the doctor know this and take note to his preference and type it the way he wants it. It is his signature on the report.

http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/19/12/4718

Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland 21287

After peripheral nerve transection, axons distal to the cut site rapidly degenerate, a process termed Wallerian degeneration. In wild-type mice the compound action potential (CAP) disappears by 3 d. Previous studies have demonstrated that cold temperatures and lower extracellular calcium ion (Ca2+) concentrations can slow the rate of Wallerian degeneration.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=10589585&query_hl=28

Early abnormalities related to postinfarction Wallerian degeneration: evaluation with MR diffusion-weighted imaging.

Castillo M, Mukherji SK.

Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill 27599-7510, USA.

Wallerian/wallerian
Subject: Wallerian/wallerian

I found it not capitalized in Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 29th edition, Stedman's Orthopaedic & Rehab workds Third edition, and if you check at http://www.onelook.com/ and type in "wallerian" you will come up with the following:
Medicine (3 matching dictionaries)
wallerian : Stedman's Online Medical Dictionary, 27th Edition [home, info]
wallerian : The On-line Medical Dictionary [home, info]
wallerian : Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary [home, info]

I do have Stedman's Radiology Words, but the Third edition, and Wallerian is not listed either under wallerian or degeneration.

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