Parrot's sign
Parrot's sign refers to at least two medical signs; one relating to the skull and another to a pupil reaction.[1]
Background
Marie Jules Parrot was a French physician in Paris, whose early work concentrated on the brain, followed by tuberculosis and later syphilis.[2]
Skull
Parrot's sign,[3] also known as 'Parrot's nodes'[4] and 'Parrot's bosses',[5][6] refers to the bony growth noted at autopsy by Marie Jules Parrot and Jonathan Hutchinson on the skulls of children with congenital syphilis (CS) in the 19th century.[2][7] Later publications also describe it as the frontal bossing that presents in the late type CS.[3][8] Initially thought to be indicative of congenital syphilis, it was noted to be present in other conditions, particularly rickets.[7]
A description of bone findings in CS by Parrot was published in The Lancet in 1879 following his presentation at a meeting hosted by Jonathan Hutchinson and Thomas Barlow in London.[2] In 1883 Barlow referred to the overgrowth of skull bone seen in CS as 'Parrot's swellings' and 'Parrot's bosses'.[5] The nodes were said to be indicative of CS.[9] In Timothy Holmes' and Thomas Pickering 's A Treatise on Surgery: Its Principles and Practice (1889) it was noted that Parrot's nodes could co-exist with thinning bone in the same skull.[10] The nodes were described in Gray's Anatomy (1893) as appearing like buttocks or hot cross bun depending on which skull bones were affected.[11] According to D'Arcy Power in 1895, they were first reported by Parrot and Hutchinson, and also found in rickets, and therefore could not strictly make them indicative of congenital syphilis.[7] In Hamilton and Love's A Short Practice of Surgery (1959), Parrot's nodes were said to comprise of patches of periostitis in CS.[12]
Pupil
Parrot's sign was described in some ophthalmology textbooks of the 19th century as the dilatation of a pupil when the back of the neck is pinched in some cases of meningitis.[13][14]
See also
References
- ↑ Pryse-Phillips, William (2009). Companion to Clinical Neurology. Oxford University Press. p. 785. ISBN 978-0-19-536772-0.
- 1 2 3 Cole, Garrard; Waldron, Tony; Shelmerdine, Susan; Hutchinson, Ciaran; McHugh, Kieran; Calder, Alistair; Arthurs, Owen (October 2020). "The skeletal effects of congenital syphilis: the case of Parrot's bones". Medical History. 64 (4): 467–477. doi:10.1017/mdh.2020.41. PMID 3789442.
- 1 2 Harper, Kristin N.; Zuckerman, Molly K.; Harper, Megan L.; Kingston, John D.; Armelagos, George J. (2011). "The origin and antiquity of syphilis revisited: An Appraisal of Old World pre-Columbian evidence for treponemal infection". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 146 (S53): 99–133. doi:10.1002/ajpa.21613. Archived from the original on 2022-12-24. Retrieved 2023-05-12.
- ↑ Stedman, Thomas Lathrop (2005). Stedman's Medical Eponyms. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. p. 544. ISBN 0-7817-5443-7.
- 1 2 Barlow, Thomas (January 1883). "On Cases Described as "Acute Rickets" Which are Probably a Combination of Scurvy and Rickets, the Scurvy Being an Essential, and the Rickets a Variable, Element". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. MCT-66 (1): 159–219. doi:10.1177/095952878306600112.
- ↑ Thomson, Alexis; Miles, Alexander. Manual of Surgery Volume One. Libronomia Company. p. 207, 536. ISBN 978-1-4499-9483-9.
- 1 2 3 Power, Sir D'Arcy (1895). "VII. Tumours of syphilitic disease of bone". The Surgical Diseases of Children: And Their Treatment by Modern Methods. Philadelphia: P. Blakiston. p. 155.
- ↑ Bhat M, Sriram (2019). "33. Miscellaneous". SRB's Manual of Surgery (6th ed.). Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers. p. 1174. ISBN 978-93-5270-907-6.
- ↑ Pepper, Augustus Joseph (1883). "34. Osseous lesions in congenital syphilis". Elements of Surgical Pathology. London: Cassell & Company. pp. 229–230.
- ↑ Holmes, Timothy (1889). "20. venereal diseases". In Pick, Thomas Pickering (ed.). A Treatise on Surgery: Its Principles and Practice (5th ed.). Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co. pp. 437–438.
- ↑ Gray, Henry (1893). Pick, T. Pickering (ed.). Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical (13th ed.). Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co. p. 227.
- ↑ Bailey, Hamilton; Love, McNeill (1959). A Short Practice Of Surgery Eleventh Edition (11th ed.). London. p. 1221.
- ↑ Oliver, Charles Augustus (1895). Ophthalmic Methods Employed for the Recognition of Peripheral and Central Nerve Disease. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 27.
- ↑ Norton, Arthur Brigham (1898). Ophthalmic diseases and therapeutics (PDF) (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Boericke & Tafel. p. 98.
Further reading
- Parrot, M.J. (May 1879). "The osseous lesions of hereditary syphilis" (PDF). The Lancet. 113 (2907): 696–698. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(02)35509-0.