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The weirdest medical mysteries of 2006

Here are my own list of the most interesting medical mysteries of 2006. I’ve chosen some publications and blogposts on astonishing cases, syndromes. If I missed something, please contact me or send your list and I’ll include it in the article. Enjoy the images below as well.

1. No fingertips: Sufferers of two rare congenital diseases – Naegeli syndrome and Dermatopathia Pigmentosa Reticularis (DPR) – can’t sweat, have thickened palms and soles, and their fingertips are as smooth as porcelain. But the mystery has been revealed.

2. Pregnant man: Bhagat of Nagpur, India, had a really big belly. Doctors thought he might have a giant tumor, so they decided to operate and remove the source of the bulge in his belly. They’ve found an other body, his mutated parasitic twin brother with limbs, some part of genitalia, hair, jaws.

3. The Girl Who Won’t Grow Up: Brooke Greenberg is 13 years old, she weighs just 13 lbs. and is only 27 inches tall. It means that she hasn’t changed in 13 years. Her condition has no name and doctors are unaware of any other child in her situation.

4. Morgellons disease: a mysterious condition marked by the sensation of insects crawling under the skin and sores that erupt and release black specks or fibers that are white or clear, or even blue or red. These fibers have nothing in common with carpet, clothing fibers and other materials. However, the fibers taken from the Morgellons patients matched each other. Still no therapy, no etiology or diagnostic criteria.

5. The death of Slobodan Milosevic: the toxicologists determined that Milosevic ingested the antibiotic rifampicin (antituberculotics), which would blunt the effect of his blood pressure medicine. As well as tribunal officials speaking on condition of anonymity suggested that the antibiotic was taken intentionally, smuggled in by visitors.

6. Glass from the head: Sarita Bista, a 12 year-old Nepalese girl has been emitting more than 130 transparent solid objects (like glass pieces) from her forehead since January 18, 2006.

7. Kids who snore regularly are nearly four times more likely to wet the bed than those who sleep silently. The possible explanation: people who snore produce more urine at night, while trying to breathe through obstructed airways may cause abdominal pressure that could also contribute to incontinence.

pregnant-man
The pregnant man

morg
Strange fibers in Morgallon’s disease

oldbaby
The 12-year-old Brooke Greenberg

no_fingerprints
On the right, an inking of a Naegeli syndrome patient, which shows an absence of fingerprint. On the left, a normal fingerprint. Courtesy of The American Journal of Human Genetics


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12 Comments Post a comment
  1. very interesting..! nice job ;)

    December 16, 2006
  2. Thank you! It took 2 days to collect these. :)

    December 16, 2006
  3. Yeah, good job. I only heard about the pregnant man. I think that was on ER or something, they said it was a tumor.

    December 17, 2006
  4. Number 3 reminds me of the literary fiction Tin Drum by Nobel-prize author Güther Grass. For those who haven’t read it, the narrating character, Oskar Matzerah decides not to grow up at the age of three, and manages to do that for quite some time. Apparently, it is not that fictious after all.

    December 19, 2006
  5. By the way, this literary fiction seems to be interesting. After my pharmacology exam, I’ll surely take a look at it. :)

    December 19, 2006
  6. monica #

    cool

    June 20, 2007
  7. Dog #

    A very interesting post. I believe that more and more weird diseases will be discovered as human body is so complex.

    June 20, 2007
  8. Wow! Where did you get this information? You never fail to impress and surprise us.

    December 6, 2007
  9. A while ago, I had plenty of time to browse the web for that kind of information. :)

    December 6, 2007
  10. pregnant man #

    did you get this

    April 27, 2008
  11. This is first time I saw a male pregnant.

    November 22, 2009

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  1. Los más extraños misterios de la medicina | Matasanos

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