Medicine is as much defined by diseases as by the people who named them. Neurology particularly has a proud history of eponymous disorders which I discussed in my other neurology blog, Neurochecklists Updates, with the title 45 neurological disorders with unusual EPONYMS in neurochecklists. In many cases, it is a no brainer that Benjamin Duchenne described Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Charle’s Bell is linked to Bell’s palsy, Guido Werdnig and Johann Hoffmann have Werdnig-Hoffmann disease named after them. Similarly, Sergei Korsakoff described Korsakoff’s psychosis, Adolf Wellenberg defined Wellenberg’s syndrome, and it is Augusta Dejerine Klumpke who discerned Klumpke’s paralysis. The same applies to neurological clinical signs, with Moritz Romberg and Romberg’s sign, Henreich Rinne and Rinne’s test, Joseph Babinski and Babinski sign, and Joseph Brudzinski with Brudzinki’s sign.
Yes, it could become rather tiresome. But not when it comes to diseases which, for some reason, never had any names attached to them. Whilst we can celebrate Huntington, Alzheimer, Parkinson, and Friedreich, who defined narcolepsy and delirium tremens? This blog is therefore a chance to celebrate the lesser known history of neurology, and to inject some fairness into the name game. Here then are 25 non-eponymous neurological diseases and the people who discovered, fully described, or named them.
Hippocrates. Eden, Janine and Jim on Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/edenpictures/8278213840
Essential tremor
Pietro Burresi
By Undescribed – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD)
Arnold Pick
By Unknown author – http://www.uic.edu/depts/mcne/founders/page0073.html, Public Domain, Link
Inclusion body myositis (IBM)
E J Yunis andF J Samaha
CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Meningitis
Vladimir Kernig and Jozef Brudzinski
By A. F. Dressler – Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag Dr. Woldemar Kernig’s: Von Verehrern und Schülern herausgegeben als Festnummer der St. Petersburger medicinischen Wochenschrift St. Petersburger medizinische Wochenschrift, Bd. 35, Nr. 45. (1910), Public Domain, Link
Migraine
Aretaeus of Cappadocia
By Cesaree01 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
Multiple sclerosis (MS)
Jean-Martin Charcot
“Journal.pone.0057573.g005” http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0057573#pone-0057573-g005. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons.
Multiple system atrophy (MSA)
Milton Shy and Glen Drager
By Kenneth J. Nichols,Brandon Chen, Maria B. Tomas, and Christopher J. Palestro – Kenneth J. Nichols et al. 2018. Interpreting 123I–ioflupane dopamine transporter scans using hybrid scores., CC BY 4.0, Link
Myasthenia gravis (MG)
Samuel Wilks
By Unknown author – http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/images/B25782, Public Domain, Link
Myotonic dystrophy
Hans Gustav Wilhelm Steinert
By Unknown author – reprinted in [1], Public Domain, Link
By Manuel Almagro Rivas – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP)
John Steele, John Richardson, and Jerzy Olszewski
By Dr Laughlin Dawes – radpod.org, CC BY 3.0, Link
Restless legs syndrome (RLS)
Karl Axel Ekbom
By Peter McDermott, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link
Stiff person syndrome (SPS)
Frederick Moersch and Henry Woltmann
By Pecatum – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
Synesthesia
Georg Sachs and Gustav Feschner
Synaesthesia. aka Tman on Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rundwolf/7001467111/
Stroke
Hippocrates
By editShazia Mirza and Sankalp GokhaleSee also source article for additional image creators. – editShazia Mirza and Sankalp Gokhale (2016-07-25). Neuroimaging in Acute Stroke.Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), CC BY 4.0, Link
Tabes dorsalis
Moritz Romberg
By https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/39/1d/edecf5a530781f5c10603a50fa35.jpghttps://wellcomecollection.org/works/gctr3stg CC-BY-4.0, CC BY 4.0, Link
Trigeminal neuralgia
John Fothergill
By Gilbert Stuart – http://www.pafa.org/Museum/The-Collection-Greenfield-American-Art-Resource/Tour-the-Collection/Category/Collection-Detail/985/mkey–1923/, Public Domain, Link
Tuberous sclerosis
Désiré-Magloire Bourneville
By Unknown author – Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire de Médecine – http://www.bium.univ-paris5.fr/images/banque/zoom/CIPB0452.jpg, Public Domain, Link
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Reunion of neurologists at the Salpêtrière hospital. Photograph, 1926 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36322408
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Let us then celebrate the pioneers…
Eponymous and anonymous alike
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Published by Ibrahim Imam
I am a UK Neurologist keen on general neurology, but with an interest in neuromuscular diseases. I maintain the neurology searchable database, www.neurochecklists.com. I also blog at www.theneurologylounge.com. I share and discuss current issues around clinical neurology. I hope you find my blogs enlightening, practical, and even entertaining.
View all posts by Ibrahim Imam
