edgepedia

Human health and medicine

25,729 articles

Sweet syndrome

Sweet syndrome (acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis), a rare autoinflammatory skin disease first described by Robert Sweet in 1964, causing fever and tender erythematous plaques with dermal neutrophil infiltrate, treated with corticosteroids.

Sweetness

Sweetness: a basic taste quality detected by the T1R2/T1R3 receptor, innate in human infants, lost in obligate carnivores like cats; sugars and non-sugar sweeteners differ in temporal profile and health evidence.

SWEFOT trial

SWEFOT (SWEdish FarmacOTherapy) trial, a Swedish randomized open-label trial (NCT00764725) in early rheumatoid arthritis comparing infliximab versus sulfasalazine plus hydroxychloroquine added to methotrexate after methotrexate failure; infliximab better at 1 year, not cost-effective over 21 months.

SWEN trial

SWEN (Six Week Extended-dose Nevirapine) trial: NIH-funded phase III randomized trial in Ethiopia, India, and Uganda (2001–2007) comparing single-dose versus six weeks of daily infant nevirapine to prevent HIV transmission through breastfeeding; extended dosing cut transmission but caused high nevirapine resistance in infected infants.

SWIFT study

SWIFT (Study of Women, Infant Feeding and Type 2 Diabetes After GDM Pregnancy) is a Kaiser Permanente Northern California prospective cohort of 1,035 women with gestational diabetes, 2008–2011, showing graded 34–57% lower 2-year diabetes risk with more intense, longer breastfeeding.

SWIMFRAIL trial

SWIMFRAIL (NCT03955302) is a University of Valencia controlled trial of 12-week physiotherapist-led water exercise, 3 sessions weekly, in frail adults aged 65-95, measuring muscle architecture by ultrasound; completed December 2019 with reported echo-intensity and muscle-thickness improvements.

Swimmer's itch

Swimmer's itch, or cercarial dermatitis, is an itchy allergic rash from bird and mammal schistosome cercariae penetrating swimmer's skin in fresh or salt water; larvae die in humans, rash resolves in 1–2 weeks, worldwide in summer.

Swiss medical weekly

Swiss Medical Weekly (SMW, Swiss Med Wkly), Basel peer-reviewed general medical journal founded 1871 as Correspondenz-Blatt für Schweizer Aerzte, English-language Diamond open access since 2001, no author fees, official journal of three Swiss medical societies.

SWISS-AF study

SWISS-AF (Swiss Atrial Fibrillation Cohort Study, NCT02105844) is a prospective multicenter Swiss cohort of 2,415 AF patients enrolled 2014-2017, studying brain lesions, cognition, and cardiovascular outcomes.

Swisse

Swisse is an Australian vitamin and supplement brand founded in Melbourne in 1969 by Kevin Ring, owned since 2015 by H&H Group; it reached USD$1 billion revenue in 2025 and leads the VHMS market in mainland China and Australia.

Sydenham chorea

Sydenham's chorea (chorea minor, St. Vitus dance, rheumatic chorea): post-streptococcal autoimmune movement disorder, major manifestation of acute rheumatic fever, mainly in children 8-9 years, treated with antibiotics, symptomatic drugs, and immunotherapy.

SYH2039

SYH2039 (SYH-2039, BG-89894) is CSPC's AI-discovered, highly selective MAT2A inhibitor for MTAP-deleted solid tumors, licensed globally to BeiGene/BeOne in December 2024 for $150M upfront and in Phase 1 trials.

SYH2068

SYH2068 is CSPC Pharmaceutical Group's GalNAc-conjugated double-stranded siRNA injection targeting lipoprotein(a) for hyperlipoproteinemia(a); NMPA-approved April 2025, in Phase 1/2 trials in China (NCT07640217).

SYH2082

SYH2082 is CSPC Pharmaceutical's long-acting GLP1R/GIPR dual-agonist peptide for once-monthly injectable obesity treatment using the LiquidGel platform; licensed to AstraZeneca in January 2026 for up to $18.5 billion, now in Phase I.

SYH2086, oral small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist

SYH2086 (MGL-2086) is CSPC Pharmaceutical Group's preclinical oral small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist, an orforglipron derivative licensed globally to Madrigal Pharmaceuticals in July 2025 for up to US$2.075 billion for MASH combination therapy.

Sylvester Black

Sylvester Michael Black is an American transplant surgeon-scientist, professor of surgery and liver transplant director at Ohio State, and a 2025 Presidential Early Career Award recipient.

Sylvester Graham

Sylvester Graham (1794–1851), Presbyterian minister and antebellum dietary reformer, 'prophet of bran bread'; advocated unbolted whole-wheat bread, vegetarianism, and sexual abstinence; namesake of the 1829 graham cracker; influenced Kellogg and Adventism.

Symbol Digit Modalities Test

The Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) is a brief neuropsychological test of processing speed in which symbols are matched to digits, scored 0 to 110.

Symbolic dysfunctions

Symbolic dysfunctions (ICD-11 MB4B, 表象機能の障害) is a WHO ICD-11 category grouping acquired losses of reading, calculation, writing, naming, and recognition (alexia, acalculia, agraphia, anomia, agnosia), excluding developmental learning disorder.

Symmetrical intrauterine growth restriction

Symmetrical intrauterine growth restriction (symmetric IUGR, Type I FGR, ICD-11 KA20.11): a growth-restriction pattern where weight, length, and head circumference are all proportionately reduced, starting early in the second trimester, usually from fetal causes such as aneuploidy or congenital infection.

Sympathectomy

Sympathectomy is a surgical procedure that interrupts sympathetic nerves to treat primary hyperhidrosis, facial blushing, and selected cardiac or vascular conditions, with Endoscopic Thoracic Sympathectomy (ETS) being the modern standard.

Sympathetic nerve block

A sympathetic nerve block is an anesthetic injection near a sympathetic ganglion to test and treat chronic pain, given at the stellate ganglion, lumbar chain, or celiac plexus.

Sympathetic nervous system

Sympathetic nervous system (SNS): thoraco-lumbar autonomic division mediating fight-or-flight, thermoregulation, blood pressure, and skin and muscle innervation, with cholinergic preganglionic and mostly noradrenergic postganglionic neurons.

Sympathetic neuron

Sympathetic neuron: preganglionic spinal cord (T1–L3) and postganglionic neural crest-derived autonomic neurons mediating fight-or-flight responses; mostly noradrenergic, specified by BMP-driven Phox2b, Mash1, Hand2, Gata3.

Sympathetic ophthalmia

Sympathetic ophthalmia, also called sympathetic uveitis, is a rare bilateral granulomatous panuveitis triggered by trauma or surgery to one eye, driven by T-cell autoimmunity to exposed ocular antigens, with onset from 5 days to 66 years and corticosteroid plus immunomodulator treatment.

Symphysiotomy

Symphysiotomy: surgical partial division of the pubic symphysis to widen the pelvis during obstructed childbirth, an alternative to caesarean section; proposed by Sigault in 1768, now rarely performed, with controversy over complications and its non-consensual use in Ireland 1944-1984.

Symphysis pubis dysfunction

Symphysis pubis dysfunction (SPD), now called pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain (PGP), is painful instability of the pubic symphysis and sacroiliac joints in pregnancy, affecting about 1 in 5 pregnant women and treated with physiotherapy, belts, and exercise.

Symptom Assessment

Symptom assessment, the evaluation of manifestations of disease (MeSH D063189), covers patient-reported outcome scales like ESAS, the Symptom Questionnaire, and PHQ-15, clinician-patient discrepancies, electronic reporting, and symptom checkers.

Symptoms and complications of uterine fibroids

Uterine fibroids, benign pelvic tumors affecting most women by menopause, cause symptoms in only about 30% of cases, most often heavy bleeding, pressure, and anemia.

Symptoms of COVID-19

Symptoms of COVID-19, the illness from SARS-CoV-2: fever, cough, sore throat, fatigue, and loss of taste or smell, with Omicron shifting symptoms toward cold-like illness and 5-10% of infections leading to long COVID.