Of All the Diseases To Be Named After Your Family

Thanks to Amazon.com’s amazing new “full keyword search of books” service, I stumbled across a reference to disease called Rukavina type familial amyloid p. Also called Indiana type, presumably becuase so many of our kin settled there, the disease is described as follows:

Indiana type familial amyloid polyneuropathy, a slowly progressive form of familial amyloid polyneuropathy with upper limb neuropathy in the distribution of the median nerves, leading to carpal tunnel syndrome and eventually trophic ulcers; ocular symptoms such as vitreous deposits may occur. Called also Rukavina type familial amyloid p., Maryland type familial amyloid p., and Rukavina’s syndrome.

What’s the chance that a syndrome that leads to carpal tunnel syndrome would be named after my family? Amazing. And decidedly unpleasant sounding. I’ll have to give someone in the Indiana branch of the family a call for practical details.