[Photo: © 2009 FOX Broadcasting Co.]

Here are the medical diagnoses of note from season 5 of House:

• “Dying Changes Everything”
  Diffuse lepromatous leprosy – Also known as “pretty” leprosy, makes the skin look younger, smoother.
• “Not Cancer”
  Cancer stem cells – Resembled local cells.
• “Adverse Events”
  Interaction of multiple experimental drugs taken in pill form, which were intermittently absorbed and released by a bezoar, a mass of undigested food in the stomach.
• “Birthmarks”
  Pins in the brain left from an attempted infanticide.
• “Lucky Thirteen”
  Sjogren’s syndrome – An autoimmune disorder that attacks the exocrine glands (which produce tears and sweat), affecting multiple organs.
• “Joy”
  Familial Mediterranean fever – An inherited inflammatory disorder, originating from people in areas around the Mediterranean sea.
• “The Itch”
  Lead poisoning – Due to an old bullet wound.
• “Emancipation”
  Acute promyelocytic leukemia – A type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow; complicated by suspected arsenic poisoning from pressure-treated wood.
• “Last Resort”
  Melioidosis – An infectious disease caused by a type of bacteria that can be found in tropical regions.
• “Let Them Eat Cake”
  Coproporphyria – An inherited genetic disorder; complicated by low-carbohydrate diet.
• “Joy To The World”
  Eclampsia – A life-threatening complication of pregnancy, which occurred after delivery of the baby from hidden pregnancy and abandoned infant.
• “Painless”
  Epilepsy – Causes various forms of seizures, which spread to sensory region of the brain, causing extreme pain.
• “Big Baby”
  Patent ductus arteriosis – An artery that bypasses the lungs before birth and closes upon first breath, which failed to close; complicated by intermittent high blood pressure.
• “The Greater Good” (Episode 100)
  Endometrial cells accidentally spread through body due to prior surgery, which “menstruated,” or bled, during menstrual cycle.

[Photo: © 2009 FOX Broadcasting Co.]

Here’s the continuation of the medical diaganoses that have been tackled by House and his team. These are from season 3:

• “Meaning”
  Addison’s disease (Richard) – Causes adrenals to shut down. Scurvy (Caren) – A disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus.
• “Cane and Able”
  Chimerism – Absorption of twin in the womb, causes left-over clumps of cells with foreign DNA. Treatment is removing twin’s cells.
• “Informed Consent”
  Amyloidosis – Congestive heart failure secondary to senile cardiac amyloidosis. Refers to a variety of conditions in which amyloid proteins are abnormally deposited in organs and/or tissues, causing disease.
• “Lines In The Sand”
  Baylisascaris raccoon roundworms – Treat with benzimidazole to kill worms and laser photocoagulation to fix eye.
• “Fools For Love”
  Hereditary Angioedema – Defective DNA keeps the body from making a critical protein.
• “Que Sera Sera”
  Carcinoma – A malignant cancer that arises from epithelial cells. Carcinomas invade surrounding tissues and organs and may metastasize, or spread, to lymph nodes and other sites.
• “Son of Coma Guy”
  MERRF Syndrome – Myoclonic Epilepsy with Ragged Red Fibers syndrome is a mitochondrial, an inherited condition that causes muscle weakness and poor night vision.
• “Whac-A-Mole”
  Chronic Granulomatous disease – Genetic disease. Body is unable to fight off certain bacterial and fungal infections.
• “Finding Judas”
  Erythropoietic Protoporphyria (EPP) – A common symptom is very painful photosensitivity, manifesting itself
  as a burning sensation on the surface of the skin, or simply, allergic to light.
• “Merry Little Christmas”
  Langerhans cell histiocytosis – A rare disease involving abnormal cells deriving from bone marrow and capable of migrating from skin to lymph nodes. Clinically, its manifestations range from isolated bone lesions to multi-systemic disease.
• “Words and Deeds”
  Spinal meningioma – Obstructing blood flow to brain causing false memories. Meningioma primary tumor of the central nervous system.
• “One Day, One Room”
  Chlamydia and pregnancy due to rape.
• “Needle In A Haystack”
  Swallowed toothpick, traveled through body, punctured organs.
• “Insensitive”
  Diphyllobothrium latum – A fish tape worm found in humans, absorbs vitamin B12, causing symptoms including abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, vomiting and weight loss.
• “Half-Wit”
  Takayasu syndrome – Takayasu’s arteritis is an inflammatory disease of unknown etiology that affects the aorta and its branches. It is an autoimmune disease normally found in Asian women. Treat with steroids.
• “Top Secret”
  Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia – A genetic disorder by definition, it is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner.
• “Fetal Position”
  Mirror syndrome (Emma) – A rare disorder affecting pregnant women. Its name reflects the fact that symptoms in the mother reflect symptoms in the fetus, and it presents significant risk to both. Congenital Cystic Adenomatoid Malformation (CCAM) – Usually an entire lobe of lung is replaced by a non-working cystic piece of abnormal lung tissue (Emma’s baby).

Read more

[Photo: © 2009 FOX Broadcasting Co.]

One of the more fascinating things about the House series is the amount of medical research that must go into the creation of each episode. The docs on House track down the most rare and difficult illnesses anywhere each week. We love the characters, but the medical “zebra diseases” are engrossing too. Here are the medical diagnoses that House and the team made during season one:

• “Everybody Lies” (pilot)
  Neurocysticercosis – A parasite infestation of the nervous system.
• “Paternity”
  Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis – A progressive encephalitis that affects primarily children and young
  adults, caused by a persistent infection of immune resistant measles virus.
• “Occam’s Razor”
  Colchicine poisoning – Colchicine is a highly poisonous natural product, has been used to treat gout.
  Colchicine poisoning has been compared to arsenic poisoning.
• “Maternity”
  Echovirus 11 – Echoviruses are found in the gastrointestinal tract. Exposure to the virus causes other
  opportunistic infections and diseases.
• “Damned if you Do”
  Copper allergy – A severe long-term allergic reaction to a copper IUD left in patient.

Read more

[Photo: © 2009 FOX Broadcasting Co.]

Fans of House that live in New Jersey may know about a location where House filmed this week. It’s an old, abandoned mental hospital there called Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Parsippany, NJ. The House crew was there yesterday to film lots of background scenes and other B-roll for use in the series during season 6. So when the season 6 episodes begin, NJ viewers will need to keep an eye open for the local shots. How cool!

That tells me that Wilson’s brother will play into things next season. We’ve been introduced to the idea of Wilson’s schizophrenic, formerly homeless brother who is now in a mental hospital, but it looks like we’ll get to see it more next season.

Or, there is an even more fascinating possibility too. Since we’ve been told that House himself is headed for a breakdown, will it be him that’s a patient in the hospital…? Here’s an excerpt from the article on the local New Jersey news web site:

Shoot Information:
The massive old Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital is “open” for business again, and its top doctor may be Hugh Laurie, star of TV’s “House.”

Crews from the popular Fox TV show spent today re-making the abandoned state hospital in Parsippany into the fictional Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital. They are expected to shoot some background scenes for next year’s episodes of the popular series Wednesday morning.

Officials from Universal Studios were tight-lipped about their plans at Greystone and whether any stars of the show might be on hand today. They said the set would be closed to the public. Police also said the road leading to the hospital would be temporarily closed.

Steve Gorelick, executive director of the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission, also had little to say about the show’s filming today.

What do you think this means for the show? I’d love to hear your thoughts!!!

An amazingly wonderful thing happened to me last week. I was asked by Parade Magazine to put together a 25 question quiz about our favorite show, House. Of course, I jumped right on the opportunity! I am honored that they asked me!!

Today, the quiz goes live on the Parade web site and I’d like to invite all of you to go take the quiz. I already know that readers of this site are above average in their House knowledge, but hope you find at least a couple of the questions challenging. And after you take the quiz, please come back here and let me know what you think of it!

At the beginning of season 4 of House, the official FOX web site had the names of the finalists for House’s team on the site. At that time, they showed Olivia Wilde’s character’s name as “Remy Hadley.”

After the cast started to call her Thirteen, they took her character’s real name off the site and let her go by Thirteen for the rest of the season. The only hint at her real name was when Cuddy called her Dr. Hadley.

Now, her identity has been put back on the FOX site, but now it is a bit different than before. See what I mean:

[Photo: ©2008 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Joseph Viles/FOX]

What are your thoughts about Thirteen’s new identity?

I made a New Year’s resolution to give you a new trivia item every couple of weeks, so here’s one for you. But first, the answer to the last trivia question (you got it right!!):

This Jeff Buckley song is featured in the season one finale:

• Grace: 22 - 7% of all votes
• Mojo Pin: 12 - 4% of all votes
• Hallelujah: 250 - 81% of all votes
• So Real: 23 - 7% of all votes

Total Votes: 307

Now here’s the new trivia question for you, sent in by House fan, Ruby:

tv, Television, house tv, House, hugh laurie

FOX actually sent out a press release today with the bios for the new team on House.

House’s Diagnostic Medicine team:

• Dr. Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn) – His specialty is rehabilitative and sports medicine. He is the most enthusiastic of all the potential fellows, but his enthusiasm could be dangerous. A radical thinker, he is the only one who doesn’t think House’s crazy moves aren’t crazy enough.
• Dr. Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson) – His specialty is plastic surgery. He is both shallow and inciteful. Taub left a successful practice for unknown reasons, which only made House more determined to figure out why.
• Thirteen (Olivia Wilde) – Her specialty is internal medicine. She’s a competent young doctor who plays her cards extremely close to the vest. She is an enigma wrapped in a riddle – and House loves a good mystery.
• Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps) – Neurologist who quit at the end of last season because he didn’t want to end up like Dr. House. But after he’s fired from his next job and no other hospital will hire him because of his “House-like” reputation, Hospital Administrator Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) placed him back on the diagnostic team to watch over the brilliant but unpredictable House.

tv, Television, house tv, House, Omar Epps, hugh laurie, Olivia Wilde, Kal Penn, Peter Jacobson

A few days ago, I posted a trivia question for you House fans. As I expected, I couldn’t fool you with such an easy one! Here’s the way you voted, and with 55% of the votes, you had the correct answer. Congratulations!!

In the episode where Wilson moves in with House (Season 2), House’s TiVo list is shown. One of the saved programs is:

• “Peter’s Friends”, featuring Hugh Laurie 16 - 8% of all votes
• “Maybe, Baby”, featuring Hugh Laurie. 23 - 11% of all votes
• “House M.D.” 15 - 7% of all votes
• “Blackadder”, featuring Hugh Laurie. 115 - 55% of all votes
• “A Bit of Fry & Laurie”, featuring Hugh Laurie. 41 - 20% of all votes

Total Votes: 210

Follow the jump for the next trivia question!
Read more