Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a

stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleeding, such as cerebral, ovarian or pituitary. Informally or metaphorically, the term ''apoplexy'' is associated with being furious, especially as "apoplectic".

Historical meaning

From the late 14th to the late 19th century,''OED Online'', 2010, Oxford University Press. 7 February 2011 ''apoplexy'' referred to any sudden death that began with a sudden loss of consciousness, especially one in which the victim died within a matter of seconds after losing consciousness. The word ''apoplexy'' was sometimes used to refer to the symptom of sudden loss of consciousness immediately preceding death. Ruptured

aortic aneurysm An aortic aneurysm is an enlargement (dilatation) of the aorta to greater than 1.5 times normal size. They usually cause no symptoms except when ruptured. Occasionally, there may be abdominal, back, or leg pain. The prevalence of abdominal aorti ...

s, and even

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

s and

s were referred to as apoplexy in the past, because before the advent of medical science, there was limited ability to differentiate abnormal conditions and diseased states. Although

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemic ...

as a medical field dates back at least to the time of

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history o ...

, until the late 19th century physicians often had inadequate or inaccurate understandings of many of the human body's normal functions and abnormal presentations. Hence, identifying a specific cause of a symptom or of death often proved difficult or impossible.

Hemorrhage

Because the term by itself is now ambiguous, it is often coupled with a descriptive

adjective In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ...

to indicate the site of bleeding. For example, bleeding within the

pituitary gland In vertebrate anatomy, the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland, about the size of a chickpea and weighing, on average, in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain. The h ...

is called '' pituitary apoplexy'', and bleeding within the adrenal glands can be called ''adrenal apoplexy''. Apoplexy also includes hemorrhaging with the gland and accompanying neurological problems such as confusion, headache, and impairment of consciousness.

References

External links

* * {{wikisource inline, list= ** {{cite journal , last=Black , first=James Rush , date=6 April 1875 , title= Apoplexy , journal=Popular Science Monthly , volume=6 ** {{cite EB1911 , last=Mott , first= Frederick Walker , wstitle=Apoplexy , volume=2 , pages=195–196 , noicon=x , short=x Pathology Causes of death Bleeding Obsolete medical terms es:Apoplejía it:Apoplessia

Historical meaning

Hemorrhage

See also

References

External links