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medical translation

Green Bean

Intrigued by this green bean? Meet a porcelain gallbladder

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Although this cutie might seem like a green bean, it’s actually a gallbladder showing what doctors call a porcelain gallbladder.

Also known as calcified gallbladder, calcifying cholecystitis, or cholecystopathia chronica calcarea, the disease is the result of extensive calcification of the gallbladder. Its picturesque name refers to the bluish discoloration and brittle consistency of the gallbladder wall that can be seen during surgery.

According to the Revista Médica de Costa Rica y Centroamérica, this disease was first described in 1831 in France, but the term porcelain gallbladder was not used until 1929.

In the Spanish-speaking world, the term vesícula en [or de] porcelana is widely used, along with colecistitis calcificante, vesícula escleroatrófica, and colecistopatía calcárea crónica.

Non-infectious models

Non-infectious Models

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This drawing was inspired by the mistranslation of the following source text: “No infection models demonstrated increased mortality risk by interleukin-specific antagonism (…)”

Original translation: Modelos no infecciosos mostraron un aumento del riesgo de mortalidad por antagonista específico de la interleucina (…)

While it is true that the English is also at fault here (it should read “No infection model demonstrated…), this is a clear example of a translator in auto-pilot.  Thus, the incorrect interpretation of the source text leaves us with a case of modelos no infecciosos (non-infectious models), and a completely erroneous translation.

How it should read in Spanish: Ningún modelo de infección demostró un aumento del riesgo…

Quite different!

Mouse Transplant

Mouse Transplant

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“Immunosuppressed mice were transplanted with clinically symptomless skin grafts from patients.”

In this case, the verb “to transplant” in English is being used as an intransitive, thus requiring the preposition “with.” However, because trasplantar is always transitive in Spanish, we must reorganize this sentence to render a coherent translation. Otherwise, we end up with the translation that inspired this post:

Se trasplantaron ratones inmunosuprimidos con injertos de piel asintomática de pacientes.

Whereby the mice with skin grafts were being transplanted.

Not a good experiment.