Fulminant

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Fulminant (/ˈfʊlmɪnənt/) is a medical descriptor for any event or process that occurs suddenly and escalates quickly, and is intense and severe to the point of lethality, i.e., it has an explosive character.^[1] The word comes from Latin fulmināre, to strike with lightning. There are several diseases described by this adjective:

• Fulminant liver failure
• Fulminant (Marburg variant) multiple sclerosis.
• Fulminant colitis
• Fulminant pre-eclampsia
• Fulminant meningitis
• Purpura fulminans
• Fulminant hepatic venous thrombosis (
  Budd-Chiari syndrome
  )
• Fulminant jejunoileitis^[2]
• Fulminant myocarditis

Beyond these particular uses, the term is used more generally as a descriptor for sudden-onset medical conditions that are immediately threatening to life or limb. Some

Some toxins, such as cyanide, may also provoke fulminant death. Abrupt hyperkalemia provoked by intravenous injection of potassium chloride leads to fulminant death by cardiac arrest.

Related terms

Look up fulminate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• To fulminate is to hurl verbal denunciations, severe criticisms, or menacing comments at someone. Rarely, it is used in its original sense, "to kill by lightning".
• Fulminates are a class of explosives used in detonator caps. They are named for the startling suddenness with which they explode.^[1]

References