Cooley's anemia

8.4

A severe inherited blood disease that causes almost no red blood cells and makes the heart, liver, and spleen grow

noun
/ˈkuːliz əˈniːmiə/

Specialized

: anemia de Cooley

The child was diagnosed with Cooley's anemia after several blood tests confirmed the absence of normal hemoglobin.

Examples

Due to the progression of Cooley's anemia, the patient required frequent blood transfusions throughout childhood.
Advances in genetic counseling have helped families at risk for Cooley's anemia make informed decisions.
Children with Cooley's anemia often require regular blood transfusions.
Is Cooley's anemia more common in certain populations?
Due to the progression of Cooley's anemia, the patient required frequent blood transfusions throughout childhood.
The child was diagnosed with Cooley's anemia after several blood tests confirmed the absence of normal hemoglobin.
Children with Cooley's anemia often require regular blood transfusions.

Synonyms

thalassemia major

vsCooley's anemia

Specialized

9.6

A severe inherited blood disease that causes very low red blood cells and needs regular transfusions

is a name that uses a person's name rather than the descriptive term

Surface Forms

Cooley's anemia singular

Cooley's anemias plural

Morphology

Cooley's + anemia

The element 'anemia' makes clear this is a blood condition (so a B1 learner who knows 'anemia' will infer it is a type of anemia), but 'Cooley's' is an eponymic proper name that carries no lexical information about severity, inheritance, or thalassemia. Thus learners can infer it labels a particular kind of anemia but cannot derive the specific clinical meaning from the constituents alone.

Etymology

Cooley's anemia is named after the doctor Thomas Cooley, who first described a very serious blood disease in children. Because the illness was 'named after a person', the phrase now means 'a severe inherited anemia'.