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Dyscrasia



Dyscrasia, is a concept from ancient Greek medicine with the word "dyskrasia", meaning bad mixture.[1] To the Greeks, it meant an imbalance of the four humors: blood, black bile, yellow bile, and water (phlegm). These humors were believed to exist in the body, and were the direct cause of all disease. This is similar to the Asian concept of Yin and Yang that an imbalance of the two polarities caused ailment.

It is still occasionally used in medical context for an unspecified disorder of the blood. Specifically it is defined in current medicine as a morbid general state resulting from the presence of abnormal material in the blood, usually applied to diseases affecting blood cells or platelets. [2]

Antimetabolitic Agents such as Leucovorin, Methotrexate, etc. may cause blood dyscrasias. Spironolactone (Potassium sparing diuretic), when used as a pro-drug to treat Conn's Disease may cause this side effect


References

  1. ^ Aphorism 79 or Organon of Medicine by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann
  2. ^ Stedman's medical dictionary, 6th edition
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dyscrasia". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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