20 diseases named after people (eponyms)
In this article, we will describe 20 diseases named after people (eponyms). They are in alphabetical order.
1. Addison’s disease
Guy’s Hospital was apparently the place to work in the 19th century if you wanted to have a disease named after you. Thomas Addison, a colleague of Bright and Hodgkin at Guy’s Hospital (see below), first described the adrenal disorder we call Addison’s disease, in 1855. This is usually an autoimmune disease where the adrenal glands are underactive. On top of this discovery, Addison also published an early study of appendicitis.
2. Alzheimer’s Disease
In 1901, German neuropathologist and psychiatrist, Alois Alzheimer began observing an odd patient at a Frankfurt asylum. The 51-year-old woman, Mrs. Auguste Deter, had no short-term memory and behaved strangely.
When Mrs. Deter died in 1906, Alzheimer began to dissect the patient’s brain, and he presented his findings that November in what was the first formal description of presenile dementia. He was the first person to identify the disease that bears his name.
Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease that attacks the brain, causing problems with memory, thinking and behaviour. It is the most common form of dementia. Patients typically develop the disease when they are 65 years or older, and it progresses slowly and steadily over a period of about 5-20 years.
Some people develop early-onset Alzheimer’s, which affects people in their 40s and 50s. There’s no cure for Alzheimer’s, although there are medications to treat its symptoms.
3. Asperger’s Syndrome
Austrian paediatrician Hans Asperger first described the syndrome that now bears his name in 1944. This was after observing a group of children who suffered from what Asperger described as ‘autistic psychopathy’. He called his patients ‘Little Professors’.
Interestingly, since Asperger’s research was all written in German, his contribution to the literature went unrecognised until much later. The term ‘Asperger’s syndrome’ didn’t come into widespread usage until 1981. Today it’s classified as an autism spectrum disorder.
4. Bright’s Disease
This kidney disease bears the name of Richard Bright, an English physician and colleague of Hodgkin’s at Guy’s Hospital. Bright began looking into the causes of kidney disease during the 1820s. And in 1827, he described (amongst other kidney conditions) what we now call nephrotic syndrome – which eventually became known as Bright’s disease.
Today, doctors understand many of the symptoms historically clumped together as Bright’s disease, are in fact different forms of kidney disease. So the term is rarely used.
5. Carrión’s Disease
The disease was originally called bartonellosis because the offending organism that causes it is Bartonella bacilliformis. The name ‘Carrión’s’ comes from Daniel Carrión, a 19th-century Peruvian medical student. When Carrión was studying, the medical community wasn’t sure whether the same organism was behind both Oroya fever and Peruvian warts.
So Carrión – apparently eager to make his mark in the medical world – inoculated himself with infectious matter from someone’s Peruvian wart as an experiment.
A few weeks later he developed symptoms of Oroya fever, which proved the same organism caused both phases of the illness. Unfortunately, he died from the disease two months later. The illness was subsequently renamed Carrión’s disease to honour Carrión for giving his life for science.
6. Crohn’s disease
The inflammatory disease could just have easily ended up with the name Ginzburg’s disease or Oppenheimer’s disease. In 1932, three New York physicians named Burrill Bernard Crohn, Leon Ginzburg, and Gordon Oppenheimer published a paper (‘Regional Ileitis: a Pathological and Clinical Entity’) describing a new sort of intestinal inflammation.
It is a chronic autoimmune gastrointestinal disease. Since Crohn’s name was listed first alphabetically, the condition ended up bearing his name.
7. Down syndrome
This was named after John Langdon Down. Also known as trisomy 21, Down syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. It is associated with delays to physical growth, characteristic facial features and mild to moderate intellectual disability.
The extra chromosome occurs by chance, but the possibility of it occurring increases from less than 0.1% in 20-year-old mothers to 3% in those over the age of 45 years.
It occurs in about one per 1,000 babies born. It can be identified in pregnancy through prenatal screening.
8. Graves’ Disease
In 1835, Irish doctor Robert J. Graves described an autoimmune disease in a patient that was characterised by a goitre (enlarged thyroid). He quickly wrote it up, and the condition became known as ‘Graves’ disease’.
Graves was talented in painting and linguistics as well as in medicine. He was once arrested as a German spy in Austria on the grounds that no ‘Englishman’ could speak German that well.
Graves’ disease occurs when the thyroid gland produces too much thyroid hormone. Like most autoimmune diseases, it affects women more often than men. Graves’ disease is also partially genetic, as it tends to run in families.
Graves also introduced his contemporaries to the ideas of timing a pulse with a watch; and offering food and drink to people with fevers, not withholding it as was the common practice at the time.
9. Hashimoto’s Disease
Although this disease is known around the world, the doctor who named it spent most of his life in a general practice rather than at a research university. Hakaru Hashimoto was born in 1881 into a Japanese family that had been involved in the medicine for generations.
In the early 20th century, he became fascinated with the thyroid gland. At just 31 years of age, he published a paper on a new thyroid condition he discovered in women with goitres that he named struma lymphomatosa. Although he had a promising academic career before him, Hashimoto returned home at 35 and took over the family’s general practice to help out his relatives.
The thyroid condition Hashimoto discovered is a slowly progressive autoimmune disease in which certain leucocytes (mainly T-lymphocytes) attack the thyroid. It is the main cause of hypothyroidism, which is an underactive thyroid.
10. Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
British pathologist Thomas Hodgkin first described this blood cancer that now bears his name while working at Guy’s Hospital in London in 1832. Hodgkin published the study ‘On Some Morbid Appearances of the Absorbent Glands and Spleen’. That year, but the condition didn’t bear his name until a fellow physician, Samuel Wilks, rediscovered Hodgkin’s work.
11. Klinefelter’s Syndrome
This is a genetic condition in which males have an extra X chromosome. It bears the name of Harry Klinefelter, a young Boston endocrinologist, who published a landmark study while working under the tutelage of endocrinology star Dr Fuller Albright in 1942.
Albright pushed his young protégé to be the lead author of the paper that described the condition – so the young Klinefelter’s name is forever associated with the syndrome.
12. Munchausen Syndrome
Sir Richard Asher was the person who coined the term Munchausen syndrome. He was also the father of Jane Asher, Paul McCartney’s girlfriend, during the Beatles’ heyday.
Unlike the previous conditions, Munchausen syndrome isn’t named after the physician who first described it, or a famous person who suffered from it. Instead, the name comes from one Baron Karl Friederich von Munchausen, an 18th-century German military man who was famous (or infamous) for his rather tall tales.
The condition was first referred to as ‘Munchausen syndrome’ in a 1951 article in The Lancet, written by English physician Richard Asher; though the syndrome was first discovered by French physician Henry Miege in 1893.
Miege was a student of Jean-Martin Charcot (see below) and wrote his thesis on patients with the condition. However it was Asher’s article that brought Munchausen’s to national attention and prompted other doctors to respond that they too had seen patients with this illness.
Munchausen syndrome and its variation, Munchausen by proxy (MSBP), are both rare but serious psychiatric disorders. People with Munchausen syndrome intentionally injure themselves or fake symptoms of an illness so that they will receive medical care or be hospitalised.
MSBP is worse because the individual – usually a mother – purposely injures her own child or someone in her care, or exaggerates an illness; so that the person will receive medical attention or be hospitalised.
13. Paget’s Disease
Sir James Paget was Vice Chancellor of London University. He was also a well-known surgeon and pathologist, and gave his name to several diseases.
Considered the father of British pathology, he’s famed for his accurate descriptions of numerous diseases, including:
- Osteitis deformans, a condition characterised by bone tumours (Paget’s disease of the bone)
- A rare breast cancer that manifests itself in and around the nipple (Paget’s disease of the nipple)
- A rare cancer characterised by lesions on extramammary sites such as the penis and vulva (Paget’s disease of the penis, or extramammary Paget’s disease)
- Carpal tunnel syndrome (median nerve compression).
These diseases are not related. Paget just happens to have discovered them all.
14. Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s disease has been known since ancient times, when it was dubbed Kampavata in Ayurveda, a 5,000-year-old system of natural healing used in India. In the western world, it was called ‘shaking palsy’ in medical literature as far back as 175 BC.
But it wasn’t until 1817 that the condition achieved some real attention. That year, James Parkinson, a physician from London, published ‘An Essay on the Shaking Palsy’.
Parkinson hoped his essay would spur others to study this condition, which greatly intrigued him after he noticed six cases both in his practice and around his neighbourhood. Some 60 years later, French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (see below) took up the challenge and began studying its symptoms and differentiating them from multiple sclerosis (another disease that Charcot was instrumental in identifying). It was Charcot who named the disease Parkinson’s.
James Parkinson was a busy fellow in other ways. While the English apothecary had a booming medical business, he also dabbled in geology, paleontology, and politics. Parkinson even published a three-volume scientific study of fossils.
Following a late-18th-century foray into British politics where he advocated a number of social causes, and found himself briefly ensnared in an alleged plot to assassinate King George III.
15. Raynaud’s Syndrome
A.G. Maurice Raynaud always wanted to work at a hospital in Paris. Although he obtained a medical degree in 1862 and his uncle was a well-known Parisian physician, Raynaud never achieved his dream of securing a hospital position. Instead, he lectured at universities. But one day he discovered a disorder affecting the blood vessels later named in his honor – Raynaud’s Syndrome, or Raynaud’s Phenomenon.
Raynaud’s is characterised by blood vessels that constrict tightly and rapidly; and circulation is cut off. This usually happens when the person is cold or stressed; and the disorder cuts off circulation to the fingers, toes, ears and tip of the nose.
Most people develop the condition when they are 15 to 25 years old, and women living in cold climates are particularly susceptible. It also appears to run in families.
16. Salmonellosis
Salmonella, which can occur in undercooked chicken, is actually named after a person. Daniel Elmer Salmon was a veterinary pathologist who ran a USDA microorganism research programme during the late 19th century.
Although Salmon didn’t actually discover the type of bacterium that now bears his name – famed epidemiologist Theobald Smith isolated the bacteria in 1885 – he ran the research programme in which the discovery occurred. Smith and his colleagues named the bacteria salmonella in honour of their boss.
17. Tay-Sachs Disease
Although both of their names are attached to this genetic disorder, Warren Tay and Bernard Sachs did not work together. In fact, they didn’t even work in the same country. Tay, a British opthalmologist, first described the disease’s characteristic cherry red spot on the retina in 1881. In 1887 Bernard Sachs, a colleague of Burrill Crohn at Mount Sinai Hospital, described the cellular effects of the disease, and its high prevalence among Ashkenazi Jews.
18. Tourette Syndrome
George Gilles de la Tourette was known for his modesty. When the French neurologist first described the illness that now bears his name in 1884, he didn’t name it after himself. Instead, he referred to the condition as ‘maladie des tics’. Tourette’s mentor and contemporary Jean-Martin Charcot renamed the illness after Tourette.
Tourette didn’t have such great luck with patients, though. In 1893, a deluded former patient shot the doctor in the head. The woman claimed that she lost her sanity after Tourette hypnotised her. Tourette survived the attack.
19. Turner Syndrome
The chromosomal disorder got its name from Oklahoma doctor Henry Turner, who first described the condition in 1938.
20. Wegener’s Granulomatosis
Sometimes, a disease named after a person has to be renamed because disturbing information later comes to light. One such case is Friedrich Wegener, a celebrated German pathologist. Working off of a description of a rare disorder first described by a German medical student in 1931, Wegener wrote about three additional cases.
He discovered they were all the same distinct form of vasculitis, which is an inflammation of the blood vessels. Eventually this disease became known as ‘Wegener’s Granulomatosis’.
However, in 2011, Mayo Clinic rheumatologist Eric Matteson was researching an article on Wegener and discovered he had a sordid past. Wegener had been a member of the Nazi Party and the Sturmabteilung (‘brown shirts’), a paramilitary organisation that terrorised opponents of Hitler.
Wegener had also worked in an office in Lodz, Poland; where medical experiments were conducted on Jewish and gypsy prisoners held in the nearby ghetto. Matteson successfully pushed three medical societies to rename Wegener’s Granulomatosis.
Other diseases named after people (eponyms)
Bells Palsy
Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842) was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist, physiologist, neurologist, artist, and philosophical theologian. He is noted for discovering the difference between sensory nerves and motor nerves in the spinal cord. He is also noted for describing Bell’s palsy. This is a dysfunction of cranial nerve VII, causing facial paralysis.
Charcot’s Foot
Jean-Martin Charcot was a French neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He worked on groundbreaking work about hypnosis and hysteria.
Charcot’s foot is a problem which can affect the foot in people with neuropathy (nerve damage with numbness). The bones of the foot become very fragile and can start to break or dislocate in response to very minor forces – even in response to the forces which occur with standing or
walking.
The commonest cause of Charcot foot is diabetes, but it can occur in people who have different causes of nerve damage. It is rare, affecting only about 1% of people with neuropathy in diabetes.
However, when it occurs, it can lead to gross deformity or ulceration of the foot. It may even result in amputation of the lower part of the leg.
Charcot was a prolific researcher and writer whose name is part of 10 or more other eponymous diseases, including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (peripheral muscular atrophy), named with Pierre Marie and Howard Henry Tooth.
Cushing’s Disease
Harvey Cushing was born in Cleveland in 1869. He received his medical education and training at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and in Europe. He was a leading neurosurgeon of his day. He was a close associate of William Osler of Hopkins. In 1912, he reported a condition that he referred to as ‘polyglandular syndrome’ related to a pituitary disorder.
His scientific career was interrupted by events in Europe. When the US became involved in World War I, he served with the US Expeditionary Force and practiced neurosurgery near the front lines. He treated Lt. Edward Revere Osler (Osler’s son), who died of his wounds at the third battle of Ypres. In 1925, Cushing received a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of William Osler.
In 1932, he published his pituitary observations, discovering basophilic adenoma of the pituitary, which became known as Cushing’s disease.
Edward’s Syndrome
In many cases where it occurs, it causes miscarriage or stillbirth. Of babies who survive to birth, half die within two weeks; and only one in every five will survive to three months. Though around one in every 12 survives beyond the first year.
It affects around one in 3,000 to 6,000 live births, and the risk increases with the mother’s age.
Born in London in 1928, Edwards was the first to report a description of multiple congenital malformations associated with the presence of an extra chromosome.
He was elected to fellowship of the Royal Society in 1979 and was a Fellow of Keble College, Oxford, and Professor of Genetics at Oxford from 1979 to 1995.
Patau’s Syndrome
Patau’s severely disrupts development in the womb and in many cases results in miscarriage, stillbirth, or death shortly after birth. About 90% of babies born with the syndrome die in the first year.
It affects about one in every 5,000 births though the risk increases with the mother’s age. It can be detected through prenatal screening.
Patau was born in Germany in 1908 and graduated from the University of Berlin with a PhD in 1936, followed by a two-year stint in London before the war.
Patau returned to Germany and worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Biology until he emigrated to the USA in 1948.
Wilm’s Tumour
This is a malignant kidney tumor containing developing (germ) cells, that usually presents in early childhood. It was first described by Max Wilms (1867-1918), German pathologist and surgeon.
Reiter’s Syndrome
Hans Reiter was born near Leipzig in 1881. He studied medicine in Berlin, Paris, and London. During World War I, he observed non-gonococcal urethiritis/arthritis in a soldier.
This and other cases described by Reiter led to a syndrome named for him. After World War I, he became an admirer of the rising political star, Adolf Hitler, and joined the Nazi party.
In World War II, he became a high-ranking physician staff member and participated in criminal experimentation in prisoners, such as at the concentration camp at Buchenwald. After the war, Reiter was tried at Nuremberg and interned by the Russians and Americans.
Eventually, he was released. Post-war, Reiter’s syndrome became an accepted eponym of a clinical entity. However, when Reiter’s wartime activities were rediscovered a campaign was initiated to disassociate his name from what we now call ‘reactive arthritis’.
Summary
We have described 20 diseases named after people (eponyms). We hope it has been helpful.
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