In the Black, Medically Speaking Quiz

Answer: melanoma

Melanoma comes from the Greek "melanos" (black) with the suffix -oma, which indicates a tumour. Melanoma is a highly malignant tumour of the melanocytes - the cells that produce the pigment melanin. It is the third most common cancer in Australia and the fifth most common in America. As melanoma is an aggressive cancer (i.e. it grows and spreads rapidly), screening and early diagnosis is very important.

The majority of medical terms to do with blackness utilise the Greek words "melas" or "melanos". Also used are "anthrax" (Greek: black as coal), "ater/atra/atrum" (Latin: dull black), and "niger/nigra/nigrum" (Latin: glossy black).

Answer: black bile

The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates proposed the idea that the human body contained four fluids, called humours, that determined a person's health and personality. The four humours were black bile, green bile, phlegm and blood. If a person was unwell, the Ancient Greeks believed it was because the four humours were out of balance.

Too much black bile and a person would be quiet, sad and emotional, a condition called melancholia or melancholy - where "melan" means black and "choly" means bile in Greek. Black bile was associated with depression and digestive issues. While the other three humours are real substances, there is no such thing as black bile.

Even though we no longer believe in the theory of the four humours today, the remnants of that idea are still with us when we refer to people as being in good (or bad) humour when referring to mood, and we still use the word melancholy to describe someone who is in a sad and reflective mood.

Answer: melanin

Melanin is a natural pigment made by your body that gives colour to your skin, hair, and eyes. There are two types of melanin - pheomelanin (a red-yellow pigment) and eumelanin (a brown-black pigment). The names are derived from the Greek "melas" or "melanos", meaning black.

Skin colour is largely determined by the amount of these two pigments but is also influenced by other pigments, such as carotene (orange-yellow), and haemoglobin (red). The amount of pigment and blending of these various substances is what gives rise to the infinite variety of the skin colour of human beings. The darker the skin, the more eumelanin is present. Lighter skin has more pheomelanin than eumelanin.

Answer: melanuria

Melanuria is the presence of dark brown or black pigment (melanin) in the urine, typically indicating advanced, metastatic melanoma (i.e. cancer which has spread). Other causes of melanuria include alkaptonuria (a rare genetic disorder), specific fungal infections, certain drugs and poisons, hemolysis (blood breakdown) and rhabdomyolysis (skeletal muscle breakdown), all of which are very serious medical conditions. Melanuria comes from the Greek "melanos" (black) and "ouron" (urine).

Answer: melaena

Melaena is a medical term for thick black, tarry stools due to the presence of blood. This usually indicates significant bleeding from the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract and may indicate a serious medical condition such as stomach ulcers, gastritis, or oesophageal tears.

Melaena is the English language spelling and melena is the American variant (with deletion of the silent 'a').

Answer: acanthosis nigricans

Believe it or not, the skin has a layer called a prickle cell layer and this is what the word acanthosis refers to. The outermost layer of the skin, the epidermis, is made up of four or five layers. The bottom-most layer is the basal layer and just above that is the spiny or pricke cell layer. Acanthosis is thickening of this layer, so-called because "akanthos" means thorn or spine in Greek.

Nigricans means "blackish, becoming black, swarthy" in Latin and is used in medicine to describe dark pigmentation.

Putting the two together, acanthosis nigricans describes a condition of the skin where there is an increase in the number of prickle cells, leading to thickening and roughening of the skin, which develops dark, velvety patches, usually in body creases like the neck, groin, or armpits. It gives the skin a dirty appearance.

Acanthosis nigricans can indicate a number of medical conditions, from simple obesity to hormonal disorders such as insulin resistance (the body not using insulin effectively), type 2 diabetes, and underlying cancer. It can also be caused by certain medications (e.g. steroids, oral contraceptives).

Answer: linea nigra

Linea nigra is Latin for "black line". It refers to a dark vertical line that often appears on the abdomen during the second trimester of pregnancy due to hormonal changes which increase melanin production. It is extremely common, developing in approximately 80% of pregnant women.

It is harmless and usually resolves by itself, but may persist for up to 12 months, and in rare cases it can be permanent. Although typically associated with pregnancy, it can occur in non-pregnant women, men and even children due to hormone fluctuations.

Answer: blackhead

The correct medical term for a blackhead is an "open comedo" - as opposed to a closed comedo (whitehead) - these terms refers to whether the pore is open or closed. Blackheads and whiteheads are formed when a pore gets clogged with excess oil (sebum), bacteria and dead skin cells. If the pore is open, the debris oxidises on exposure to the air, hardens and turns black (open comedo or blackhead). If the pore is closed, oxidation does not occur (closed comedo or whitehead).

Hormones can trigger the formation of blackheads by stimulating sebaceous glands to overproduce sebum which clogs the pores. This commonly occurs during puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, or periods of high stress.

The word "comedo" is Latin for "glutton, to eat up". The plural of comedo is comedones. It is believed that the name relates to the fact that, if squeezed, the blackhead will exude a wormlike fragment of waxy material which was thought by the ancients to be the remains of a small worm that had burrowed into the skin to eat the flesh.

Answer: necrosis

When body tissue dies, it turns black due to a combination of lack of oxygen, the breakdown of blood components, and the accumulation of waste products. This process is called necrosis (Greek for "state of death"). Necrosis can be triggered by lack of blood flow, disease, severe infection, or severe trauma (such as burns or frostbite).

Answer: coal worker's pneumoconiosis

Coal worker's pneumoconiosis, often abbreviated to CWP, is widely known colloquially as black lung disease or simply black lung. It is an occupational disease caused by breathing in coal dust over a long time, usually by people working in coal mines (as the name implies) but it can be contracted by anyone exposed to coal-based pollution.

CWP causes inflammation and fibrosis (scarring) of the lung tissue, turning the colour from pink to black, with distortion of the structure of the lung. Symptoms include a chronic cough, shortness of breath and chest tightness.

Pneumoconiosis is derived from Greek word parts "pneumon" (lung), "konis" (dust) and the suffix -osis (condition or disease), translating to a "lung condition caused by dust".