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How Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Got Its Name
The Clinical-Pathologic Genius of Jean-Martin Charcot
Lewis P. Rowland, MD
Arch Neurol. 2001;58:512-515.
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Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) occupies a unique place in the history
of human disease in general and in neurological disease in particular. Charcot
was the one who deduced the relationship between the clinical signs and the
findings at autopsy. In his 1874 description,1
Charcot established the clinicopathologic approach that has dominated medical
nosology ever since. In the latter half of the 19th century, diseases were
defined by autopsy findings.
Charcot was the not first to describe cases of ALS. Tyler and Shefner2 credit Charles Bell with a report in 1824. Having distinguished
the motor functions of anterior spinal nerve roots and the sensory functions
of the posterior roots, Bell was interested in finding patients with purely
motor disorders. Goldblatt3 also mentioned early
cases.
By midcentury there were fiery debates among famous neurologists. Among
the syndromes characterized by limb weakness and muscle atrophy, they ultimately
came to . . . [Full Text of this Article]
From the Neurological Institute, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center,
New York, NY.
Corresponding author: Lewis P. Rowland, MD, Neurological Institute,
710 West 168th St, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, NY 10032
(e-mail: lpr1@columbia.edu).
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES
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Hirano
Neurology 2008;70:1161-1162.
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