Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome mnemonic

 Wiskott is riding an ostrich.

The ostrich is sick because it has immunodeficiency; it has epistaxis due to thrombocytopenia and a lot of eczema eggs.

X-linked disorder that causes cytoskeleton rearrangement.

Cytochrome P450 Inducers & Inhibitors mnemonics

Moderately offensive mnemonics that induce CYP450:

Nevir drive your carb by Ma's pines,
through the barbwire fence, and
up the ramp
into St. John's woods.

De-phen-ding griseoly bear (on a cycle, "Phossy,") will mo'dafinetly attack your drunk ass.

• Nevirapine
• Carbamazepine
• Barbiturates
• Rifampin
• St. John's wort
• Phenytoin
• Griseofulvin
• Cyclophosphamide
• Modafinil
• Chronic alcoholism

Offensive mnemonic that off-puts, or inhibits, CYP450:

Ami and Quinn pro-teased Sonia'z azole with grapes and Clara's myce on the ciment floor.

• Amiodarone
• Fluoroquinolones
• Protease inhibitors
• Isoniazid
• -azole antifungals
• Grapefruit juice
• Clarithromycin
• Cimetidine

Neural crest cell / MEN2 mnemonic

Here's a word-picture to help remember the facts.

Two men "A" and "B" are wearing crowns (neural crests) and are both eating melon (melanocytes).

Man B is really tall and skinny (marfanoid) and has big orthodontics, and he chokes on the melon -- it's gone down his trachea! He freaks out! His lips and his eyelids are swollen!

Man "A," Larry, gives him a cricothyrotomy -- right in his larynx.

Now that it's 10AM, man B enters a muffin store in order to RETurn his melon. There are some seriously lumpy muffins inside...

Man "A" goes to the middle of the store. A swan in the middle of a simulated "sea" (C cells) wearing a royal crest is giving birth. The swan wields a para -- an M249 machine gun, and has HUGE thighs, 'cuz it has been using 'roids.

With the help of her dula, who is pounding on a tympani to help the swan count, she gives birth to a baby swan. Baby swan spirals around, covered in a membrane.

MEN2A/B is a gain of function mutation in the RET (tyrosine kinase) proto-oncogene found on chromosome 10. This affects cells derived from the neural crest. Both types are associated with pheochromocytoma and parathyroid hyperplasia (in type 2A) or Marfanoid habitus and mucosal neuromas (type 2B). These cells are derivatives of neural crest cells and are listed in order of appearance:

• Melanocytes
• Odontoblasts
• Tracheal & laryngeal cartilage
• Enterochromaffin cells
• Parafollicular thyroid cells
• Schwann cells
• Adrenal medulla
• Spiral membrane / tympanic surface

Benzodiazepine mnemonics

The Benzos have a contest crossing the Alps.

TOM tries with an ox mid-day;
Team Lorax crosses the Alps in less than a day;
The heavy Latin girls, Flura and Chlora, take more than one dia.

Short-acting: triazolam, oxazepam, midazolam (t½ < 6 hrs.)
Intermediate: temazepam, lorazepam, alprazolam (t½ < 24 hrs.)
Long: flurazepam, chlordiazepoxide, diazepam. (t½ > 24 hrs.)

Microbiology: mnemonics, Baitisj-style

This post is primarily for medical students.

My brain doesn't work well with normal mnemonics, so I have to create sentences that use multiple letters from the organisms.

Aerobic bacteria:

Mona's heart and lungs need air.

• Pseudomonas
• Nocardia (cardia = heart)
• Mycobacterium (infest the lungs), good enough for me

Anaerobes:

Ana's mice fuse bacteria and robes together in her closet.

• Actinomyces
• Fusobacterium
• Bacteroides
• Clostridium

Obligate intracellular:

Outside, it was rilly cold and chlammy, so I went inside because I needed to ATPee with my rilly chlammy cox.
(needs host ATP)

• Rickettsia
• Chlamydia
• Coxiella

Facultative intracellular:

I listened in as the facultative French Legion pestered my nice salmon brood.

• Listeria
• Francisella
• Legionella
• Yersinia pestis
• Neisseria
• Salmonella
• Brucella

 Catalase-positive:

Because she was Aspergers at heart, Mona Ecolied (coiled) her candid list around her serrated cattle-staff instead of her helical book-holder.

• Aspergillus
• Nocardia
• Pseudomonas
• E. coli
• Candida
• Listeria
• Serratia
• Burkholder
• Helicobacter pylori

Urease-positive: (this is the only acronym that works for me.)

Struvite stones? PEe CHUKSS!

• Staph. epidermidis
• Proteus
• Cryptococcus
• H pilori
• Ureaplasma
• Klebsiella
• Staph. saphrophyticus

Encapsulated bacteria:

Jesus (GBS)! Mona klubbed HIs nice, pnew-ly-colied salmon capsule.

• Group B Strep
• Pseudomonas
• Klebsiella
• Haemophilus influenzae (type B)
• Neisseria meningitidis
• Strep. pneumoniae
• E. coli
• Salmonella