Any scientific discipline needs a sharply defined set of words for exact and reproducible communication. Surprisingly this has never been a strong point in dermatological science, especially as regards the living gross pathology of skin disease.
Objective:
This article briefly reviews the four editions of a dermatological dictionary of words and phrases and gives some thoughts on their usefulness.
Conclusion:
My conclusions are twofold: we need a new dictionary; at the very least, we need a reprinting of the fourth edition of A Dictionary of Dermatologic Terms by Carter.
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References
1.
LeiderMRosenblumM. Dictionary of Dermatological Words, Terms and Phrases, 1965. Dome Laboratories distributed this work free, letter by letter, to dermatologists in the United States and Canada. The following letters were sent as separate packages: A, B, C, D, EF, GHI, JKL, M, NO, P, RS, TU, and V to Z (my copy contains no O).
2.
LeiderMRosenblumM. A dictionary of dermatological words, terms and phrases, 2nd ed.McGraw-Hill (Blakeston)Philadelphia1968.
3.
LeiderMRosenblumM. A dictionary of dermatological words, terms and phrases, revised ed.West Haven, CTDome Laboratories1976.
4.
CarterRL. A dictionary of dermatologic terms, 4th ed.Williams and WilkinsBaltimore1992.
5.
Derm infodisc, 1999 version (10 database). One database CD-ROM is Leider and Rosenblum's Dictionary of Dermatological Words, Terms and Phrases, revised ed.Dome Laboratories, 1976. Available from Dermatology Services Inc., 930 North Meacham Road, Schaumburg, IL 60173–6016. (American Academy of Dermatology member's discounted price: $295 US.)
6.
LeiderMRosenblumM. A philological note on a certain classical suffix commonly used in dermatologic and general medical literature. J Invest Dermatol1947; 9: 213–218
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LeiderM. Re: Standard Nomenclature (letter). Arch Dermatol1960; 82: 276–277
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LeiderMRosenblumM. What does it mean? An experiment in writing a dermatologie dictionary. J Invest Dermatol1961; 36: 441–449
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WilliamsHCStrachanDP, eds. The Challenge of DermatoEpidemology. CRC PressNew York1997, Chap 11 and 23.
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AckermanAB. Need for a complete dictionary of dermatology in the 21st century, (special millenium article). Arch Dermatol2000; 136: 23
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JacksonR. Definitions in Dermatology. A dissertation on some or the terms used to describe the living gross pathology of the skin. Clin Exp Dermatol1978; 3: 241–247
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ReisfeldPLResnickKSAckermanAB. Standard Dermatologic Definitions (letter). Arch Dermatol1998; 134: 635–638
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JacksonR. On standard dermatology definitions. Comments and Opinions (letter). Arch Dermatol1999; 135: 1273
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Committee on Nomenclature, International League of Dermatological Societies. WinkelmannR.K. Chairman. Glossary of basic dermatology lesion. Acta Dermatol Venereol (Stockh)1987; 130(suppl):l–16
