Wordsmith.org
Posted By: marylynncorder rhabdomyosis - 04/02/02 03:16 PM
What does the prefix, rhabdo mean? I know what the condition is and I know what myo- and -sis refer to but what is rhabdo-?

Posted By: tsuwm Re: rhabdomyosis - 04/02/02 03:26 PM
rod; thus, rhabdomancy, divination by means of a wand.

(hoooah!)
Posted By: wwh Re: rhabdomyosis - 04/02/02 03:52 PM
In many medical words rhabdo- refers to striated muscle. Elsewhere to rod shape. For an online medical dictionary, try http://www.graylab.ac.uk/omd/index.html

And, welcome to AWADtalk. We need all the talent we can get, so do come back often with challenges tougher than the above one.
Posted By: Keiva Re: rhabdomyosis - 04/02/02 07:07 PM
What does the prefix, rhabdo mean?
rod; thus, rhabdomancy, divination by means of a wand.

[Speaking of which, has anyone heard a word from rodward?]

Is this related to
Rhadamanthine: Strictly and uncompromisingly just. ETYMOLOGY: From Rhadamanthus.
Rhadamanthus: (Greek Mythology) A son of Zeus and Europa who, in reward for his exemplary sense of justice, was made a judge of the underworld after his death.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/51/R0215100.html





Posted By: wwh Re: rhabdomyosis - 04/02/02 08:10 PM
If you two gallants had looked at the lady's bio, you would have seen that she is a nursing instructor, and so interested in medical aspects of the word. Bronx cheer to you both.
Rod Ward told me by PM a couple months ago that his job had changed making it more difficult for him to participate.
And I can be rhadamanthinely just is declaring total absence of etymological relationship to query.

Posted By: tsuwm Re: rhabdomyosis - 04/02/02 08:38 PM
>Bronx cheer...

dear bill, not all good deeds need be done out in the open.

(infinitus est numerus stultorum)
Posted By: wwh Re: rhabdomyosis - 04/02/02 09:35 PM
Dear tsuwm: it so rarely happens that I can pretend to be one up on you, don't deny me my petty exultation.

Posted By: hev Re: rhabdomyosis - 04/03/02 12:18 AM
Deary me! Trust these boys not to remember to say this:

WELCOME marylynncorder! (May I call you MLC for short?) A hearty, stereotypical G'day from Down Under. Glad you're with us.. Hope those boys are helping you out, 'cos I don't got a clue!

Hev
Posted By: wofahulicodoc not exactly a word post - 04/04/02 01:03 AM
Probably more than you ever wanted to know about rhabdo-myo-lysis:

To expand on Dr Bill's reply - these days one is most likely to have come across the term rhadomyolysisin the context of taking a pill to lower the cholesterol. The more common (read "most heavily advertised") are Lipitor and Zocor and Pravachol, and there are also Lescol and the just-about-to-be-eligible-for-a-generic-equivalent Mevacor. They are examples of the class of drug called "statins" because that suffix is common to all their generic names.

Formerly there was also Baycol but it caused big problems in a small number of patients whereas the others caused less trouble, and so Baycol was taken off the market with great fanfare and publicity and proclamation of self-righteousness.

The risk of rhabdomyolysis was quite low even with Baycol, the worst offender. The numbers were something like 77 fatalities among 700,000 patients, and maybe half of the 77 were also being given another drug (Lopid) which was specifically warned against: shouldn't be used at the same time as Baycol. (No such warning found necessary with the other statins, by the way, and they have looked into it very intently.)

When that side effect was brought to the public's attention lots of people became worried about the other major side effect, which is "liver trouble." To expound on that a bit - making cholesterol is one of the liver's usual chores; it just sometimes doesn't know when to stop, and so a statin is given to interfere with this liver function. Problem only arises if the statin interferes with other, more desirable, liver functions. There is an easy (routine) blood test to show if this has happened, and almost always the abnormality goes away when the pills are discontinued. A different statin may not have that problem, by the way.

Bottom line: If your doctor has told you your chance of having a heart attack in the next five or ten years is, say, 25% or even higher, say for a 60-year-old male with a bad family history and smoking and diabetes and high blood pressure (oh yes, and a high cholesterol), and can maybe be reduced by a third is you take a statin, doesn't it seems a little silly to worry about rhabdomyolysis (Remember rhabdomyolysis? This here's a song about rhabdomyolysis) which occurs only once out of ten thousand - that's 0.001% - or liver trouble which is routinely searched for and generally reversible when found...

[Disclaimer: See your doctor for additional information if wanted !]

Posted By: wwh Re: not exactly a word post - 04/04/02 02:16 AM
Thank you wofahulicodoc. I've been taking high dose of Zocor for about eight years. I looked at package insert, but fine print was too much for me. I never heard of rhabdomyolysis before. Thank goodness I am not in the unlucky 1.4%

See what you started, marylynncorder! first exposed my ignorance, and then got me educated a bit.