This morning I have an echocardiogram report back on an over 80 year old who is short of breath. It reports all sorts of stuff but this sounded ominous "Threadlike mobile structure noted on the aortic valve consistent with Lambl's excrescences."

I have never heard of Lambl's excrescences. I would have run off to look it up except for the parentheses attached: (benign incidental finding).

Now I have time to look it up and the first article is this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1995042/. Hmmmm. An association with stroke is not as benign as I would hope.

Next is the British school of echocardiography: http://www.bsecho.org/masses/lambl's-excrescence/ which informs me that these were first described by Vilem Dusan Lambl, a Bohemian physician in 1856. How fabulous! I learn new things in medicine daily, some of which are true.

And for a picture, go to http://rwjms1.umdnj.edu/shindler/lambl.html. Damage to the aortic valve is postulated to be partially detached and then covered with fibrin tissue to form the excrescences.

I am not sure whether I would enjoy using it as a band name more or trying to work it into a conversation once a day for a week.... outside clinic.

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