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Jean George Bachmann
(1877 – 1959)
French physician–physiologist whose experimental work in the early twentieth century provided the first clear functional description of a preferential interatrial conduction pathway. This structure, eponymically named “Bachmann’s bundle”, plays a central role in normal atrial activation and in the pathophysiology of interatrial block and atrial arrhythmias.
As a young man, Bachmann served as a merchant sailor, crossing the Atlantic multiple times. He emigrated to the United States in 1902 and earned his medical degree at the top of his class from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1907. He stayed at this Medical College as a demonstrator and physiologist. In 1910, he joined Emory University in Atlanta. Between 1917 -1918 he served as a medical officer in the US Army. He retired from Emory in 1947 and continued his private medical practice until his death in 1959.
On the personal side, Bachmann was a man of many talents: a polyglot, he was fluent in German, French, Spanish and English. He was a chef in his own right and occasionally worked as a chef in international hotels. In fact, he paid his tuition at Jefferson Medical College, working both as a chef and as a language tutor.
The intrinsic cardiac conduction system was a major focus of cardiovascular research in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The atrioventricular (AV) node was discovered and described by Sunao Tawara and Karl Albert Aschoff in 1906, and the sinoatrial node by Arthur Keith and Martin Flack in 1907.
While the connections that distribute the electrical impulse from the AV node to the ventricles were known through the works of Wilhelm His Jr, in 1893 and Jan Evangelista Purkinje in 1839, the mechanism by which electrical impulses spread between the atria remained uncertain.
In 1916 Bachmann published a paper titled “The Inter-Auricular Time Interval” in the American Journal of Physiology. Bachmann measured activation times between the right and left atria and demonstrated that interruption of a distinct anterior interatrial muscular band resulted in delayed left atrial activation. He concluded that this band constituted the principal route for rapid interatrial conduction.
Subsequent anatomical and electrophysiological studies confirmed the importance of the structure described by Bachmann, which came to bear his name. Bachmann’s bundle is now recognized as a key determinant of atrial activation patterns, and its dysfunction is associated with interatrial block, atrial fibrillation, and abnormal P-wave morphology. His work remains foundational in both basic cardiac anatomy and clinical electrophysiology.
Sources and references
1. Bachmann G. “The inter-auricular time interval”. Am J Physiol. 1916;41:309–320.
2. Hurst JW. “Profiles in Cardiology: Jean George Bachmann (1877–1959)”. Clin Cardiol. 1987;10:185–187.
3. Lemery R, Guiraudon G, Veinot JP. “Anatomic description of Bachmann’s bundle and its relation to the atrial septum”. Am J Cardiol. 2003;91:148–152.
4. "Remembering the canonical discoverers of the core components of the mammalian cardiac conduction system: Keith and Flack, Aschoff and Tawara, His, and Purkinje" Icilio Cavero and Henry Holzgrefe Advances in Physiology Education 2022 46:4, 549-579.
5. Knol WG, de Vos CB, Crijns HJGM, et al. “The Bachmann bundle and interatrial conduction” Heart Rhythm. 2019;16:127–133.
6. “Iatrogenic biatrial flutter. The role of the Bachmann’s bundle” Constán E.; García F., Linde, A.. Complejo Hospitalario de Jaén, Jaén. Spain
7. Keith A, Flack M. The form and nature of the muscular connections between the primary divisions of the vertebrate heart. J Anat Physiol 41: 172–189, 1907.
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You should try to answer this question before reading this article (or looking at your hand) .
In superficial or surface anatomy the hand is the distal component of the superior extremity. Since anatomy is studied with the specimen in the anatomical position, the hand has an anterior (volar) surface represented by the palm and a posterior (dorsal) surface.
Each hand has a thumb and four (not five) fingers. Why does the thumb have a different name? Because it is different. Look at your hand and you will see that the thumb has only two joints while the fingers have three joints, counting the metacarpophalangeal joint at the base of the fingers and the thumb.
Based on the above, it is wrong to say that you have five fingers in each hand. You have five digits in each hand and they are counted from the lateral aspect, so the thumb is your first digit and the most medial and shortest of the digits is the fifth digit, please do not call it “pinky”. Click here to see interesting anatomical trivia regarding the fifth digit.
It is important to call the components and regions of the body appropriately. And more interestingly (you can look at you hand now), it is fun to know that contrary to popular belief, you do not have a “middle finger”.
Take your time thinking about that one!
Images in the public domain, modified from the original, own work, by Evan-Amos
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The prefix [dys-] arises from the Greek [δυσ] meaning “difficult ”, "adverse", or “abnormal”. In medical terminology it is used mostly with the meaning of abnormal, as in the following medical terms:
- Dysfunctional: Abnormal function
- Dyslexia: The root term [-lex-] means “to read”. Abnormal reading
- Dystrophy: The root term [-troph-] means “to grow”. Abnormal growth
- Dysplasia: The root term [-plas-] means “development”. Abnormal development
- Dysphasia: The root term [-phas-] means “speech”. Abnormal speech. Do not confuse with aphasia
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The eponymic nodules (or nodes) of Arantius are thickenings of the tunica intima layer covering the ventricular aspect of the leaflets of the aortic valve, also known as the ventricularis layer (see blue arrows in the accompanying image). The thickening happens at the point of coaptation of all three leaflets. The shape and size of these growths varies from person to person and with age. The proper name for these structures is “nodes of the semilunar cusps” or “noduli valvularium semilunarium valvae aortae” in Latin
The portion of the leaflet proximal to the node of Arantius is the load-bearing portion and the portion of the leaflet distal to the node of Arantius is non-functional and is known as the “lunule”
Hypertrophy of the node of Arantius is not common, but when present and excessive it can lead to aortic valve dysfunction and insufficiency.
These excrescences of the valve leaflets are named after Giulio Cesare Aranzio (1530 – 1589), an Italian anatomist better known by his Latinized name Arantius.
Although most anatomists and surgeons use the same eponym for the excrescences of the pulmonary valve, those should be called the “nodes of Morgagni” after Giovanni Batista Morgagni (1682 - 1771) or "Noduli valvularum semilunarium valvae trunci pulmonalis" in Latin
Sources:
1. “The surface anatomy of the human aortic valve as revealed by scanning electron microscopy.” Hurle, JM et al Anat Embryol (Berl). 1985;172(1):61-7
2. “Hypertrophy of nodules of Arantius and aortic insufficiency: pathophysiology and repair.” Shapira, N et al Ann Thorac Surg. 1991 Jun;51(6):969-72
3. "The origin of Medical Terms" Skinner, AH, 1970
4. "Terminologia Anatomica: International Anatomical Terminology (FCAT)" Thieme, 1998
5. "Tratado de Anatomia Humana" Testut et Latarjet 8th Ed. 1931 Salvat Editores, Spain
Image property of: CAA.Inc.. Photographer: D.M. Klein
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The prefix [melan-] evolves from the Greek [μέλας] (m?las) meaning “black”. It can also be used as a root term and is found in many medical words as follows:
- Melanocyte: The suffix [ –(o)cyte] means cell. A black cell containing melanin, a black pigment
- Melanoma: The suffix [-oma] means “mass” or “tumor”. A black tumor, or a mass of melanocytes, as shown in the accompanying image.
- Melanomata: The suffix [-(o)mata] is the plural form of the suffix [-oma]. Multiple melanomas
- Melanin: Name given to the pigment that gives melanocytes its dark, black color
- Melancholy: It is also referred to as [melancholia]. The root term [-chol-] means “bile” and the word itself means “black bile”. In the old physiological theory of “the four humors” black bile represented a bodily fluid that in excess could lead to a dark, pensive frame of mind and eventually depression.
It is also found in the medical word [melena] referring to dark, blackened feces as a result of digested blood in the feces, pathognomonic of bleeding into the gastrointestinal tract. This word evolved from the early Latin (and later British English) spelling of this prefix as [melena], later eliminating the “a”, ending as [melen-]
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The prefixes [a-] and [an-] take their origin from the Greek [άνευ], meaning “without”, or “absence”.They are used in many medical terms:
- Analgesia: The root term [-alg-] means “pain”. Without pain
- Anesthesia: The root term [-thes-] means “sensation”. Without sensation
- Atrophy: The root term [-troph-] means “to grow”. Without growth
- Aplasia: The root term [-plas-] means “development”. Without development
- Aphasia: The root term [-phas-] means “speech”. Without speech. Do not confuse with dysphasia
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The root term [-troph-] arises from the Greek [τροφή] (trophi), meaning “food”, to feed”, or “growth”. The addition of the suffix [-y], meaning “process of” allows us to form the following medical terms:
- Hypertrophy: The prefix [hyper-] means “excessive”. Excessive growth
- Dystrophy: The prefix [dys-] means “abnormal”. Abnormal growth
- Eutrophy: The prefix [eu-] means “good” or “well”. Good growth, referring to normal growth
- Atrophy: The prefix [–a] means “absence” or “without”. Absence of growth
The addition of other suffixes such as [-ic] gives us descriptive or adjectival forms of the same root: Hypertrophic, dystrophic, eutrophic, and atrophic.