Shades of Gray

Medicine is at least as much art as science. Often things are not clear-cut, but rather appear in shades of gray. We offer the following list of terminology for those who don't mind thinking in terms of black or white.

Black death: Bubonic plague

Black fever: Kala azar

Black beauties: Amphetamines

Black damp: Atmosphere without oxygen (in coal mines)

Black spots film fault: Defect in x-ray caused by dust particles on the film

Blackheads: Comedones

Black lung: Coal worker's pneumoconiosis

Black water fever: Severe malaria

Black vomit: Seen in yellow fever

Blackfan-Diamond disease: Pure red cell aplasia

Blackleg (also black quarter and black spaul): Symptomatic anthrax in cattle and sheep

Black dot ringworm: Tinea capitis

Blackout: Syncope

Black eye: Periorbital ecchymosis

Black heel: Petechial hemorrhages in heels of athletes

Black liver jaundice syndrome: Dubin-Johnson syndrome

Black light: Ultraviolet long-wave light

Black hairy tongue: Benign hyperplasia of filiform papillae

Black measles: Hemorrhagic measles

Black piedra: Tropical disease of hair shafts

Blacklocks syndrome: Variant of tyrosinase plus albinism

Blackfat tobacco: Tobacco mixed with Vaseline and smoked, producing progressive pulmonary fibrosis (in Guyana)

Black fly fever: Condition produced by black fly bite in children mainly in rural northeastern United States

Black blood disease: Congenital methemoglobinemia

Black baby syndrome: Fetal PCB syndrome

Black thyroid syndrome: Discoloration of thyroid from minocycline use

White plague: Tuberculosis

White liver: Steatosis of liver

White atrophy: Atrophy of epidermis

White thrombus: Thrombus composed of white blood cells

White spots film fault: Defect in x-ray caused by air bubbles in developer

Whiteheads: Comedones

White dermographism: Skin finding in atopic dermatitis

White damp: Carbon monoxide (in coal mines)

White leg: Milk leg, phlegmasia alba dolens

Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome: Ventricular pre-excitation syndrome

White line of scurvy: Dense zone of provisional calcification at metaphyseal ends of bone

Marshall-White syndrome: Ischemic angiospastic spots on the palms associated with insomnia and tachycardia

White's disease: Keratosis follicularis (Darier disease)

Bland-White-Garland syndrome: Anomalous origin of left coronary artery

White spot disease: Lichen sclerosus et atrophicus

White sponge nevus: Cannon nevus of oral or nasal mucosa

White pox: Variola minor

White gangrene: Gangrene from local anemia

White piedra: Disease of hair shafts (temperate and tropical climates)

White bodies: Platelet emboli in retinal vessels after a transient ischemic attack

White femoral shortening procedure

White sliding heel cord lengthening procedure

White infarct: Fibrin deposition on placenta

Samman-White syndrome: Yellow nail syndrome

White clot: Heparin-associated thrombocytopenia and thrombosis

White Dragon Pearl syndrome: A female pattern of drug dependence named after attractive and well-educated Hong Kong women who became addicted as a result of contact with wealthy men in the illegal drug trade

White liver disease: Reye syndrome

White finger syndrome: Occupational Raynaud disease