Main Entry: Ver·ner–Mor·ri·son syndrome

Pronunciation: \ˈvər-nər-ˈmȯr-ə-sən-, -ˈmär-\

Function: noun

: a syndrome characterized especially by severe watery diarrhea and hypokalemia that is often due to an excessive secretion of vasoactive intestinal peptide from a vipoma especially of the pancreas—called also pancreatic cholera, WDHA syndrome

Verner, John Victor (born 1927), American internist, and Morrison, Ashton Byrom (born 1922), American pathologist. Verner and Morrison published their description of Verner-Morrison syndrome in 1958. A brief report on the same syndrome had been published a year earlier by British physicians W. M. Priest and M. K. Alexander. In addition to pancreatic cholera, Morrison's areas of research included chronic renal insufficiency and nephropathies. Morrison held a series of professorships at the medical schools for Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Rochester before settling at Rutgers University Medical School, first as professor of pathology and eventually as dean.