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Query: UMLS:C0008489 (chorea)
 2,102 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The role and contributions of the Philadelphia Orthopedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases in the development of neurology in 19th-century America are described. American neurology was largely born during the Civil War through the work of S.W. Mitchell at Turner's Lane Hospital. With the closing of this military facility, the United States was left without an institution dedicated to neurologic research and the treatment of nervous system diseases. Nineteenth century archival data, including original Trustees' minutes, annual board of managers reports, patient case books, and published research from the Philadelphia Orthopedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases were studied. The Philadelphia Orthopedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases promoted the development of neurology in the United States through three main activities. First, it offered patients with primary nervous system diseases, arthritis, and orthopedic disorders specialized care that was unavailable at medical universities. Second, its medical staff, especially Mitchell, provided opportunities for advanced neurologic education. Postgraduate physicians interested in neurologic disease attended formal lectures and directly participated in the operation of outpatient clinics and inpatient rounds. Finally, its formalized record system in the form of case books facilitated neurologic research. These records formed the basis of landmark publications by Mitchell, Sinkler, Osler, and others on rest therapy, spastic palsies, chorea, and other topics. As America's first and comprehensive peacetime neurologic facility, the Philadelphia Orthopedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases fostered the evolution of neurology as a separate, viable specialty in the post-Civil War period and provided a particular focus for the study of interactions among orthopedic, nutritional, and neurologic disorders.
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PMID:Philadelphia Infirmary for Nervous Diseases: America's original model of institutional neurology. 963 39

The original descriptions of chorea date from the Middle Ages, when an epidemic of "dancing mania" swept throughout Europe. The condition was initially considered a curse sent by a saint, but was named "Saint Vitus's dance" because afflicted individuals were cured if they touched churches storing Saint Vitus's relics. Paracelsus coined the term chorea Sancti Viti and recognized different forms of chorea (imaginativa, lasciva, and naturalis). In the 17th century, Thomas Sydenham provided an accurate description of what he termed chorea minor. He also described rheumatic fever but did not associate it with chorea. It was only in 1850 that See established a relationship between chorea and rheumatic disease. A connection with cardiac involvement was soon recognized and in 1866 Roger postulated that chorea, arthritis, and heart disease had a common cause. The last quarter of the 19th century is marked by the works of Jean-Martin Charcot, Silas Weir Mitchell, William Osler, and William Richard Gowers, all of paramount importance in the refinement of the definition of chorea, its causes, and differential diagnosis. In 1841, Charles Oscar Waters gave a concise account of a syndrome, likely to be Huntington's disease (HD), later described further by George Huntington and named after him. In 1955, the Venezuelan physician Americo Negrette published a book describing communities in the State of Zulia in Venezuela, with unusual numbers of individuals with chorea. Negrette's works culminated in the creation of the Venezuela project and the subsequent discovery of seminal findings in HD. We review the historical facts and outstanding physicians that mark both HD and Sydenham's chorea's history in various sections.
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PMID:Chorea: A Journey through History. 2605 9