Novice knowledge of histological eponyms and descriptive terms

Introduction

Use of eponyms (structures named after a person) in anatomy has been widely debated. Some argue many of these terms are colloquially understood and easy to remember, however student knowledge of these terms is not well documented. To address this, the current study assessed student familiarity with histological eponyms vs. corresponding descriptive terms at the beginning of a histology course at two different institutions.

Materials and Methods

Students at Indiana University (n=49) and the University of Western Australia (n=123) completed a quiz consisting of 30 pairs of eponyms and descriptive terms. Students were asked to select the body system to which each structure belonged. Terms were ranked by perceived difficulty. Inter-rater reliabilities were calculated using Fleiss' Kappa, and discrepancies were discussed to consensus. Eponym/descriptive term pairs were compared using Chi-square analysis.

Results

The difficulty of terms chosen was moderately agreed upon by the raters (κ = .460; P<0.01). Chi-square analysis found significant differences between 26 of the 30 eponym/descriptive term pairs (P<.001-.030). Students at both institutions were more likely to place descriptive terms in the correct body system over eponyms; 43% for descriptive terms compared to 23% for eponyms. Furthermore, students were more likely to respond "I don't know" for an eponym than the corresponding descriptive term.

Conclusion

This study indicates that novice learners were more likely to place histological descriptive terms in the correct body system than eponyms. Further work is necessary to determine students' perceived utility of eponyms and how they best learn histological terminology.