- A dictionary of medical eponyms

Marchiafava-Bignami syndrome

Related people

A progressive neurological disease most frequently seen in middle-aged or elderly alcoholic males but also affecting some nonalcoholic subjects. The main symptoms are fits, stupor, coma and dementia. Due to demyelination of the corpus callosum and cortical laminar necrosis involving the frontal and temporal lobes. It has been attributed to drinking "rough" red wine. It was first described in an Italian Chianti drinker. Death usually occurs 4 to 6 years after onset.

The first case was observed by Marchiafava in 1897 and published in a doctoral dissertation (Carducci) in 1898.

Bibliography

  • E. Marchiafava, A. Bignami:
    Sopra un' alterazione del corpo calloso osservata da sogetti alcoolisti.
    Rivista di patologia nervosa e mentale, 1903, 8 (12): 544-549.
  • E. Marchiafava, A. Bignami, A. Nazari:
    Über Symptomdegeneration der Kommissuralbahnen des Gehirns bei chron. Alkoholismus.
    Monatsschrift für Psychiatrie und Neurologie, Berlin, 1911, 29: 181-215, 315-344.

What is an eponym?

An eponym is a word derived from the name of a person, whether real or fictional. A medical eponym is thus any word related to medicine, whose name is derived from a person.

What is Whonamedit?

Whonamedit.com is a biographical dictionary of medical eponyms. It is our ambition to present a complete survey of all medical phenomena named for a person, with a biography of that person.

Disclaimer:

Whonamedit? does not give medical advice.
This survey of medical eponyms and the persons behind them is meant as a general interest site only. No information found here must under any circumstances be used for medical purposes, diagnostically, therapeutically or otherwise. If you, or anybody close to you, is affected, or believe to be affected, by any condition mentioned here: see a doctor.