Dyscrasia
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Dyscrasia, is a concept from ancient Greek medicine with the word "dyskrasia", meaning bad mixture.[1]
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[edit] Ancient use
To the Greeks, it meant an imbalance of the four humors: blood, black bile, yellow bile, and water (phlegm). These humors were believed to exist in the body, and any change in the balance among the four of them was the direct cause of all disease.
This is similar to the concepts of bodily humors in the Tibetan Medical tradition and the Indian Ayurvedic system, which both relate health and disease to the balance and imbalance of the three bodily humors, generally translated as wind, bile, and phlegm. This is also similar to the (Chinese) concept of Yin and Yang that an imbalance of the two polarities caused ailment.
[edit] Modern use
It is still occasionally used in medical context for an unspecified disorder of the blood. Specifically it is defined in current medicine as a morbid general state resulting from the presence of abnormal material in the blood, usually applied to diseases affecting blood cells or platelets. [2]
Antimetabolitic agents such as Leucovorin, Methotrexate, etc. may cause blood dyscrasias. Spironolactone (Potassium sparing diuretic), when used as a pro-drug to treat Conn syndrome may cause this side effect. Drugs such as Tocainide, Phenytoin, Valproic Acid, Mexiletine, Methazolamide, and Acetazolamide also causes blood dyscrasis.
Azathioprine (an immunosuppressant, used for example in inflammatory bowel disease) in conjunction with xanthine oxidase inhibitors such as allopurinol (often used in the treatment of gout) can also lead to blood dyscrasia as the 6-mercaptopurine level rises in the blood.
Also a common side effect of Aspirin + Dipyridamole (Aggrenox) used in the treatment of Stroke.
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