was born in Paris, France late in 1825. Even though he was a nineteenth century scientist, his influences carried on into the next century, especially the work of some of his well-known students. He was the professor at the University of Paris for 33 years and in 1862 he started an association with Paris’s Salpetriere Hospital that lasted all throughout his life. He ultimately became the director of the hospital. Charcot was known for being an excellent teacher of medicine and he attracted students from all over Europe. His focus turned to the study of neurology and he is known by some as the founder of modern neurology. In 1882, he established a neurological clinic at the hospital that was a first in Europe.
Charcot’s work covered many other aspects of neurology aside from the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. He was the first to describe the degeneration of ligaments and joint surfaces due to the lack of use or control, now known has Charcot’s joint. He also did research to determine the parts of the brain that were responsible for specific nerve functions, and discovered the importance of small arteries in a cerebral hemorrhage.
Like many other diseases, multiple sclerosis existed long before it had a name. Writings from as far back as the Middle Ages described patients with symptoms that doctors today believe pointed to MS. A Dutch saint named Lidwina, who died in 1433, may have been one of the first known MS patients. After she fell while ice skating, she developed symptoms such as excruciating pain, blinding headaches, problems walking and paralysis. Her condition got worse over the course of her life, but she did have remissions. Another well-known potential MS patient was a grandson of King George III, who described his symptoms in a diary that he kept until his death in 1848.
Twenty years later, Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot became the first person credited with identifying multiple sclerosis as a disease. A female patient of his suffered an unusual combination of symptoms. He tried some of the typical treatments for other neurological disorders, such as electrical stimulation and injections of silver (which helped alleviate the symptoms of syphilis), but none of them worked. After his patient died, he dissected her brain and discovered the brain lesions. He called the disease sclerose en plaques. Myelin was discovered shortly afterwards, although its exact significance was unknown.
In 1868, Charcot examined a young woman who had a tremor he had never seen in the past. He noted that she had other neurological issues such as slurred speech and abnormal eye movements. Charcot compared her symptoms with those of his other patients. After the woman died, he examined her brain and found the characteristic scars, also known as plaques, of MS.
Dr. Charcot wrote a complete description of the disease and the changes in the brain that come along with it. But he was confused by what caused MS and was frustrated at the fact that it was resistant to all of the treatments he had tried. Some of the treatment methods that were used included electrical stimulation, and the use of the poison strychnine, because it was also a nerve stimulant. He had also used injections of gold and silver, which had been helpful with another common nerve disorder, syphilis, at the time.
Without a doubt, Charcot was one of the most important doctors in history. His findings in relation to MS and his understanding of the disease has helped the doctors and scientists of today learn more about the disease. This 19th century French neurologist worked at the Salpetriere Hospital in Paris and was first to make the link between the hitherto mysterious symptomatology, now known as multiple sclerosis. He was also the first to find the pathological changes in post-mortem samples. Nearly forty years after the discovery of the lesions caused by MS, the clinical condition was described by Charcot as a distinct disease.
Dr. Charcot died in 1893 in Morvan, France.
No comments:
Post a Comment