Symptom

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A Moment in History

Georg Eduard Von Rindfleisch
(1836 – 1908)

German pathologist and histologist of Bavarian nobility ancestry. Rindfleisch studied medicine in Würzburg, Berlin, and Heidelberg, earning his MD in 1859 with the thesis “De Vasorum Genesi” (on the generation of vessels) under the tutelage of Rudolf Virchow (1821 - 1902). He then continued as a assistant to Virchow in a newly founded institute in Berlin. He then moved to Breslau in 1861 as an assistant to Rudolf Heidenhain (1834–1897), becoming a professor of pathological anatomy. In 1865 he became full professor in Bonn and in 1874 in Würzburg, where a new pathological institute was built according to his design (completed in 1878), where he worked until his retirement in 1906.

He was the first to describe the inflammatory background of multiple sclerosis in 1863, when he noted that demyelinated lesions have in their center small vessels that are surrounded by a leukocyte inflammatory infiltrate.

After extensive investigations, he suspected an infectious origin of tuberculosis - even before Robert Koch's detection of the tuberculosis bacillus in 1892. Rindfleisch 's special achievement is the description of the morphologically conspicuous macrophages in typhoid inflammation. His distinction between myocardial infarction and myocarditis in 1890 is also of lasting importance.

Associated eponyms

"Rindfleisch's folds": Usually a single semilunar fold of the serous surface of the pericardium around the origin of the aorta. Also known as the plica semilunaris aortæ.

"Rindfleisch's cells": Historical (and obsolete) name for eosinophilic leukocytes.

Personal note: G. Rindfleisch’s book “Traité D' Histologie Pathologique” 2nd edition (1873) is now part of my library. This book was translated from German to French by Dr. Frédéric Gross (1844-1927) , Associate Professor of the Medicine Faculty in Nancy, France. The book is dedicated to Dr. Theodore Billroth (1829-1894), an important surgeon whose pioneering work on subtotal gastrectomies paved the way for today’s robotic bariatric surgery. Dr. Miranda.

Sources:
1. "Stedmans Medical Eponyms" Forbis, P.; Bartolucci, SL; 1998 Williams and Wilkins
2. "Rindfleisch, Georg Eduard von (bayerischer Adel?)" Deutsche Biographie
3. "The pathology of multiple sclerosis and its evolution" Lassmann H. (1999) Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 354 (1390): 1635–40.
4. “Traité D' Histologie Pathologique” G.E.
Rindfleisch 2nd Ed (1873) Ballieres et Fils. Paris, Translated by F Gross

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Details: Written by: Efrain A. Miranda, Ph.D.; Published: June 04, 2014; Hits: 5335

The medical term [symptom] has many definitions, as shown in this article. A good definition follows: A symptom is that what a patient refers, it is subjective, and cannot be measured or standardized (between patients). Examples of symptoms are thermal sensation ("I feel hot or feverish"), visceral sensations ("I feel a lump on my throat"), etc. In all cases the main characteristic of a symptom is that is subjective and patient-dependent. It is only relevant to a particular patient and cannot be compared from one patient to another.

Symptoms are part of the clinical study or history of a patient that help lead to a diagnosis.

• Merrian-Webster: "subjective evidence of disease or physical disturbance", "something that indicates the existence of something else"
• Memidex: "any sensation or change in bodily function that is experienced by a patient and is associated with a particular disease"
• Pandora World: "Feelings and perceptions reported by a patient indicative or that can be correlated with a disease process"
• Oxford Dictionaries: "A physical or mental feature that is regarded as indicating a condition of disease, particularly such a feature that is apparent to the patient"

Pain is a subjective entity, as it is characteristic to an individual. We all feel and respond to pain differently, as there are people with higher and lower thresholds to pain. Although I understand the need to have some type of standard, I dread the question posed by many..."From one to ten, can you tell me what your pain level is?. If the answer allows the physician or nurse to compare levels of pain within the same patient and see the evolution of a pathology, I am OK with that. But you cannot use that measurement to compare pain levels between patients!

The latest advances test for nerve activity following a noxa, but this just indicates that pain is being detected. Some say that the higher the recording the higher the pain. Possibly; but since pain is subjective we cannot use that measurement to compare pain levels between patients... at least that is my opinion. Dr. Miranda

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