Mortuary Mnemonics Damon de la Cruz

Hemoptysis

Here’s a mnemonic that I overheard in class one day.

It’s for the word Hemoptysis.

Hemoptysis is the coughing up or spitting  of blood from one’s lungs. It can be a sign of
a serious medical condition. It can be caused by infections such as
tuberculosis, cancer, and problems in blood vessels in the lungs.

In my class hemoptysis is introduced with several other
terms that are new but have similar meaning, epistaxis, melena and others. This
creates a perfect occasion for a good mnemonic.

Here is the one that I heard:  When you say hem-pt-ysis  you can put an emphasis on the “pt” sound and
create a sound that is similar to a “spitting” sound.  Of course, spitting often includes involves sputum
so the correlation is solid.

I hope this helps you manage some of the pathology terms to
get you through the boards.

Here’s a quick mnemonic. 
It’s one of those anatomical directional terms.   These are important for communicating with other professionals as they help to remove
ambiguity.

Today’s term is supination, the rotation of the forearm and hand so that the palm faces forward or upward. 


The mnemonic is Soupination. 
Imagine holding a bowl of soup in the palm of your hand. I suggest a gazpacho because it’s a not too hot to hold.   To do this your hand would be in the supine position with the palm facing up.

Easy! Credit for this mortuary mnemonic goes to Ben.

As you are most certainly aware, one of the goals of embalming is temporary preservation. This accomplished is in part by stabilizing proteins.  Without getting into the chemical pathways this stabilization can be achieved through the neutralization of enzymatic proteins that will digest other proteins.  In
regard to neutralization of enzymes it’s sort of a two birds one stone effect, stabilize and neutralize a protein all at once.  Enzymes are regulated in a multitude of ways.  This
is a great launching off point for our mnemonic for proenzymes.

Proenzymes are the precursors of enzymes, a change is
required to activate them. In a biological system it’s sometimes more effective, quicker really, to have enzymes ready to go but not active than it is to synthesize them on the fly.  Usually, activation
occurs by hydrolysis of an inhibiting fragment that masks an active site. Examples of proenzymes are pepsinogen and trypsinogen.  These are digestive enzymes that we don’t want to be active when there
is no food to digest in our stomach but can be quickly activated when needed.  In my mind proenzymes are like a wheel lock that immobilizes a car. The car can’t move with it on but functions fine when the lock is off.

I think of proenzymes as “pre”enzymzes.  The mnemonic for the day is the pro/pre swap for proenzymes.

Imagine if these enzymes were perpetually active and
unregulated!  We’d digest ourselves!! Its much safer to have them in the “PROcursor” form.

Tendons and ligaments are confusing. Do tendons connect bone to muscle? Muscle to muscle? Do ligaments connect bone to muscle?

Okay so here is where I lean into structures that I am confident
about.  Those structures that I’ve been familiar
with for years, even before my first anatomy class. 

A tendon is defined as a flexible but inelastic cord of
strong fibrous collagen tissue attaching muscle to bone.

A ligament is defined as a short band of tough, flexible fibrous
connective tissue which connects two bones or cartilage or holds a joint in position.

Often confused.

Tendons first

Arguably the most famous tendon in the body is the Achilles
tendon.  It connects the heel bone to the muscles of the foreleg.  Specifically, it connects the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles in the calf to an insertion point at the calcaneus.  The Achilles tendon connects muscle to bone.

Now ligaments

All embalmers are familiar with the Inguinal ligament.  It’s discussed in the guide for the femoral artery.  It’s the ligament that attaches the anterior spine of the iliac to the pubic tubercle.  The inguinal ligament connects bone to bone.

Let’s take a moment to talk about amino acids. Amino acids
are the building blocks of proteins. Embalming can, in part, be defined as the use of chemicals to stabilize
proteins.  That being said, the reaction between embalming chemicals and proteins really occurs at the amino acids level.

There are over 500 amino acids that exist in nature.  Of that there are about 20 that are necessary for human life.  The number is debatable but
for our purposes let’s assume the magic number is 20.  Of these 20, there are two groups.  Some of these amino acids are produced through metabolism and others we don’t produce. We must get them through food stuff.

An amino acid produced by our body is referred to as non-essential.

If we have to obtain from food, because we can’t synthesize them, they are called essential.   

And here is our mnemonic. 


Of the twenty amino acids, 12 are made by our cells! The rest are obtained by eating food.  Some simple arithmetic (20-12) gives us that the
remaining number of amino acids is eight.

The number of essential amino acids is eight, and you eat them to get them.

You ate the eight.

Pathology has a lot of vocabulary that sounds very similar.  For example, hypertrophy, hyperplasia and aplasia.  These similar
sounding words can get confusing.  Knowing the pre-fix, suffix, and root words can be helpful in times like these.  But sometimes there is a mnemonic in there
that can help alleviate stress.

Let’s take a look at Hypertrophy and hyperplasia.  Hypertrophy is the enlargement of an organ or tissue from the increase in the size of its CELLS.  An example of this would be the result of working out to increase muscle size.  Conversely,  hyperplasia is an increase in a tissue or organ caused by an increase in the reproduction rate of its cells.  This is observed in cancer.

So here’s the mnemonic and it helps with two vocabulary words, hypertrophy and hyperplasia.  Within the word Hypertrophy, is the word trophy. 
Everyone prefers one large trophy, not a bunch of small ones.  So when you see the word hypertrophy, think of one large trophy and you’ll be reminded about large cells versus an increase in the number of cells as tissues become enlarged.

 

Hopefully this mnemonic helps you get through some pathology.