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Arrhythmia & Electrophysiology Review Apr 2022The name Ivan Mahaim is well-known to electrophysiologists. However, alternative anatomical substrates can produce the abnormal rhythms initially interpreted on the... (Review)
Review
The name Ivan Mahaim is well-known to electrophysiologists. However, alternative anatomical substrates can produce the abnormal rhythms initially interpreted on the basis of the pathways he first described. These facts have prompted suggestions that Mahaim should be deprived of his eponym. It is agreed that specificity is required when describing the pathways that produce the disordered cardiac conduction, and that the identified pathways should now be described in an attitudinally appropriate fashion. The authors remain to be convinced that understanding will be enhanced simply by discarding the term 'Mahaim physiology' from the lexicon. It is fascinating to look back at the history of accessory atrioventricular junctional conduction pathways outside the normal accessory atrioventricular conduction system, and their possible role in rhythm disturbances. It took both the anatomist and the clinical arrhythmologist quite some time to understand the complex anatomical architecture and the ensuing electrophysiological properties. Over the years, the name Mahaim was often mentioned in those discussions, although these pathways were not the ones that produced the eponym. The reason for this review, therefore, is to present relevant information about the person and what followed thereafter.
PubMed: 35990105
DOI: 10.15420/aer.2022.12 -
Clinical Anatomy (New York, N.Y.) Jan 2022Newborn anatomy, despite being distinctly different than adult anatomy, does not constitute a major component of a typical medical school course in gross anatomy....
Newborn anatomy, despite being distinctly different than adult anatomy, does not constitute a major component of a typical medical school course in gross anatomy. Accordingly, there is a perception that other than the well-known late 20th-century atlas and small textbook by Edmund Crelin on newborn anatomy, there is almost no information available for anatomists and clinicians to refer to on normal infant anatomy. This perception, as verbalized by Crelin in his books, is not correct. There is an amazing wealth of accurate descriptive and pictorial information on infant anatomy available from late 19th- and early 20th-century sources. One of these sources is a comprehensive 200-page chapter on pediatric anatomy by Richard Scammon that was published in 1923 and that is freely available. Because of some inconsistencies and inaccuracies we have identified in the Crelin works, we suggest that any anatomist or clinician who wishes to learn and teach about infant anatomy refer to Scammon's chapter before using any text or image from the Crelin books.
Topics: Adult; Anatomists; Anatomy; Child; History, 19th Century; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Learning; Schools, Medical
PubMed: 34378242
DOI: 10.1002/ca.23774 -
Revue Neurologique 2021François Pourfour du Petit was a Parisian experimental neuro-anatomist, and ophthalmologist, who investigated his extensive wartime experiences of brain and spinal... (Review)
Review
François Pourfour du Petit was a Parisian experimental neuro-anatomist, and ophthalmologist, who investigated his extensive wartime experiences of brain and spinal injuries and verified his conclusions by animal experiments. His results showed with great originality that brain injuries caused weakness or paralysis of the opposite limbs. He also clarified the anatomy of the spinal cord and decussation of the pyramidal tracts, and demonstrated the anatomy and clinical significance of the cervical sympathetic chain.
Topics: France; History, 17th Century; History, 18th Century; Humans; Mydriasis; Neurology
PubMed: 32654778
DOI: 10.1016/j.neurol.2020.04.023 -
Current Biology : CB May 2023In the early 19th century, long before the discovery of the dinosaurs, scientists and the public alike were faced with the realization that strange beasts, wholly...
In the early 19th century, long before the discovery of the dinosaurs, scientists and the public alike were faced with the realization that strange beasts, wholly extinct, were once populating Earth's ancient oceans. In no small part, this realization was through the discovery of the first plesiosaurs (and ichthyosaurs) along the Dorset coast of England in the seaside town of Lyme Regis. There was this large marine reptile resembling a large sea turtle, but with four evenly shaped flippers and looking as though a large snake had been pulled through its carapace. It was soon to be named scientifically Plesiosaurus, in reference to its greater similarity to living reptiles than the Ichthyosaurus (Figure 1). While the Ichthyosaurus was relatively easily understood as a fish-shaped reptile descended from land-living ancestors, the Plesiosaurus was beyond comprehension, even though incomplete skeletons had been unearthed already in the early 18th century. Plesiosaurs seemed so alien that the first complete skeleton, discovered by the famed Mary Anning a little more than 200 years ago (Figure 1A), was considered a fake by the leading anatomist of the day, the Baron Georges Cuvier in Paris. Only study of the original specimen convinced him of the authenticity of this animal but reinforced his seminal insight that there is extinction.
Topics: Animals; Male; Animal Shells; Dinosaurs; England; Environment
PubMed: 37220726
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.04.018 -
Journal of Neurosurgical Sciences Dec 2015The description of an anatomical specimen may look straightforward, but it appears that it depends in fact on several intermingled factors: technical methods for... (Review)
Review
The description of an anatomical specimen may look straightforward, but it appears that it depends in fact on several intermingled factors: technical methods for conservation, dissection and vascular injection and the anatomist skills are of course important. This is especially true when the studied organ, as for instance the brain, is subject to rapid putrefaction after death without any preservation technique. Nevertheless the possibility to reject, or at least criticize, the dominant paradigm is probably as important as these technical considerations: important changes occurred in brain representation between the early Middle Ages and the Early Modern Times, without major improvements of cadaveric preservation or dissection methods; Vesalius rejected the existence of the rete mirabile in human not only because he was a talented anatomist but also because he accepted and had the courage to fight the dominant tradition inherited from Galen. Such difficulties in the scientific approach obviously remain vivid, and should not be forgotten despite the development of modern tools for studying brain morphology and function.
Topics: Anatomy, Artistic; Animals; Brain; Brain Mapping; Diffusion Tensor Imaging; History, 16th Century; History, 17th Century; History, 18th Century; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Humans; Neuroanatomy; Neuroimaging
PubMed: 26354184
DOI: No ID Found -
Perception Aug 2018Sensory receptors were described and illustrated after they had been observed with the aid of microscopes. Most descriptions were made in the 19th century after the... (Review)
Review
Sensory receptors were described and illustrated after they had been observed with the aid of microscopes. Most descriptions were made in the 19th century after the introduction of achromatic lenses in microscopes. In some senses (like vision), receptors were named according to their morphology whereas in others (like touch), they are known by the names of those who initially described them. Illustrations of the receptors from original sources are here combined with portraits of their originators.
Topics: Ear, Inner; History, 17th Century; History, 18th Century; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; Humans; Medical Illustration; Neuroanatomy; Nose; Retina; Sensory Receptor Cells; Skin; Tongue
PubMed: 29768972
DOI: 10.1177/0301006618775896 -
Clinical Anatomy (New York, N.Y.) Jul 2016Chromosome abnormalities may cast light on the nature of mechanisms whereby normal anatomy evolves, and abnormal anatomy arises. Correlating genotype to phenotype is an... (Review)
Review
Chromosome abnormalities may cast light on the nature of mechanisms whereby normal anatomy evolves, and abnormal anatomy arises. Correlating genotype to phenotype is an exercise in which the geneticist and the anatomist can collaborate. The increasing power of the new genetic methodologies is enabling an increasing precision in the delineation of chromosome imbalances, even to the nucleotide level; but the classical skills of careful observation and recording remain as crucial as they always have been. Clin. Anat. 29:540-546, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Topics: Chromosome Disorders; Chromosomes; Embryo, Mammalian; Fetus; Humans; Karyotyping; Phenotype; Uniparental Disomy
PubMed: 26990310
DOI: 10.1002/ca.22714 -
Journal of Anatomy Jun 2022This article explores the history of the terms atlas and talus and discusses the unexpected implications of their use in human anatomy. Renaissance anatomists decided to...
This article explores the history of the terms atlas and talus and discusses the unexpected implications of their use in human anatomy. Renaissance anatomists decided to call the first cervical vertebra the atlas. But the name atlas was first used by the ancient Romans for the seventh cervical vertebra. The most common explanation why the first cervical vertebra is called atlas is that the vertebra holds up the globe of the cranium the way Atlas holds up the globe of the heavens. However, an important part of the myth of Atlas is that the Titan was being punished. The seventh cervical vertebra was so named due to its suitability for supporting burdens. (Pollux, 1900) Switching the designation atlas from the seventh to the first cervical vertebra in human anatomy implies that the point of man's burden has shifted from his shoulders to his head. What an anatomist is saying by making, or accepting, this change is that man's true burden is not a physical load, but rather, it is his mind. We explore the implications of this switch, and how it is represented in Renaissance anatomy diagrams. Long before the first cervical vertebra was called atlas it was known as the astragalus, the same term used for the talus, or ankle bone. We examine the many different terms that were used for the ankle bone during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, as well as the connection of the term talus with Greek mythology.
Topics: Cervical Atlas; Cervical Vertebrae; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Talus
PubMed: 34914100
DOI: 10.1111/joa.13613