Category: Ba-Bb

Infection by the raccoon roundworm. Baylisascaris procyonis is found commonly in raccoons. When infective eggs of this roundworm are ingested by humans, Baylisascaris larvae hatch in the intestine and travel through the organs and muscles. This is the larva migrans syndrome. Infected raccoons shed millions of eggs in their feces. The eggs develop to the…

A probability principle set forth by the English mathematician Thomas Bayes (1702-1761). Bayes’ theorem is of value in medical decision-making and some of the biomedical sciences. Bayes’ theorem is employed in clinical epidemiology to determine the probability of a particular disease in a group of people with a specific characteristic on the basis of the…

The World War II name for what is known today as post-traumatic stress, this is a psychological disorder that develops in some individuals who have had major traumatic experiences (and, for example, have been in a serious accident or through a war). The person is typically numb at first but later has symptoms including depression, excessive irritability,…

A disease in which children are physically abused. The battered child syndrome is a form of child abuse. Not until the 19th century were children granted the same legal status as domesticated animals in regard to protection against cruelty and/or neglect. In 1962 the term “battered child syndrome” entered medicine. By 1976 all states in the…

A rare, fatal genetic condition that typically begins in childhood. It is a form of a group of neurologic disorders called the neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses, or NCLs. The term Batten disease is sometimes used to refer to all the NCL disorders. Early signs can be vision changes, seizures, clumsiness, or behavior changes. With time, neurologic…

An abnormal and persistent fear of depths. Sufferers from bathophobia experience anxiety even though they realize they are safe from falling into or being consumed by depths. The feared object may be a long, dark hallway, a well or a deep pool or lake. “Bathophobia” is derived from the Greek “bathos” (depth) and “phobos” (fear).

An intensely itchy rash due to contact with the tiny thimble jellyfish (Linuche unguiculata). These jellyfish are common between March and August in the waters off of Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. There may be no adult jellyfish around as a warning. The jellyfish larvae look like mere specks of “finely ground pepper” and…

A type of white blood cell (leukocyte) with coarse, bluish-black granules of uniform size within the cytoplasm. Basophils are so named because their cytoplasmic granules stain with basic dyes. Basophils normally constitute 0.5 to 3 percent of the peripheral blood leukocytes, and contain histamine and serotonin. Also known as a basophilic leukocyte.

A type of white blood cell (leukocyte) with coarse, bluish-black granules of uniform size within the cytoplasm. Basophils are so named because their cytoplasmic granules stain with basic dyes. Basophils normally constitute 0.5 to 3 percent of the peripheral blood leukocytes, and contain histamine and serotonin. Also known as a basophilic leukocyte.

A fatal heart attack triggered by extreme psychological stress. The effect is named after Charles Baskerville, a character in the Arthur Conan Doyle story “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” who suffers a fatal heart attack due to extreme psychological stress. The term “Baskerville effect” was coined in 2001 in the course of a research study that found Chinese Americans and Japanese…