Wasserman reaction
- noun
- Archaic
:
reacción de Wasserman
- A positive Wasserman reaction indicated the presence of syphilis antibodies in the patient's blood.
Examples
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The Wasserman reaction was once the standard test for diagnosing syphilis in clinical laboratories.
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The Wasserman reaction was once a common test for syphilis.
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Although outdated, the Wasserman reaction marked an important advance in medical diagnostics.
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Doctors often relied on the Wasserman reaction for diagnosis.
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A positive Wasserman reaction indicated the presence of syphilis antibodies in the patient's blood.
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The Wasserman reaction was once the standard blood test used to diagnose syphilis.
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Although now considered outdated, the Wasserman reaction played a crucial role in the history of syphilis testing.
Synonyms
A blood test once used to find the germs that cause syphilis
A test of blood that checks for signs of syphilis
Surface Forms
Morphology
Wasserman + reaction
This is an eponymous medical term: 'Wasserman' is a proper name with no independently meaningful lexical content for learners, and 'reaction' only signals a medical/chemical process or test. A B1 learner knowing the constituents would not be able to infer that it specifically denotes a blood test for syphilis, so the meaning is not derivable from the parts.
Etymology
Wasserman reaction gets its name from a doctor called Wassermann and from the word reaction, because his test made a clear change in a blood sample. That visible change showed the disease 'syphilis', so Wasserman reaction came to mean a blood 'test' for 'syphilis'.
