Eponymous syndromes

Eponymous syndromes are common in medicine and we have many radiopaedia articles dedicated to syndromes, conditions and signs that are named after the individual that first described them.

This information is important and interesting, but does not need to be included in the first paragraph of the article. The first paragraph should help the reader to understand the scope of the article, not when Dr Addison was born and where he lived.

To this end, the information about etymology, whether or not it is related to a eponymn should be contained in a separate section towards the end of the article. Where the article relates to an eponymous syndrome the following style should be followed.

Remember to tag the article as "eponymous".

Naming convention - use of apostrophe

An apostrophe should be used if the disease is named after the patient, and no apostrophe if the disease is named after the physician (for example, Down syndrome.

Ideally the alternative (e.g Down's syndrome) which is still commonly used, should be added as a synonym to facilitate linking.

Etymology

A little introduction to the etymology of the sign or syndrome followed by a list the relevant people as a bulleted list:

• Dr Harold Style (1921-1998), anatomist and artist; Bonn, Germany

Just to clarify:

1. Name of the individual (in bold) 
2. (Dates of birth and death) in brackets and of the form yyyy-yyyy (no spaces)
3. comma
4. details of profession
5. semi-colon
6. name of the place of their work

See also

• style guide and help
• articles
• article structure