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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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The inguinal (Poupart's) ligament has always been described as a separate, discrete, distinctive ligamentous structure. This is not so. The inguinal ligament is the thickened, incurved, lower free border of the external oblique aponeurosis. This structure extends between the anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) superolaterally, and the pubic tubercle inferomedially. The inferomedial portion of the inguinal ligament send fibers towars the pectineal ligament (Cooper's ligament) and forms the lacunar (Gimbernat's) ligament.
Inferior to the inguinal ligament is an open region (subinguinal space) that allows passage of structures between the abdominopelvic region and the femoral region. Some of these structures are: Iliacus muscle, psoas major muscle.
Although described by Vesalius, Fallopius, and others it was the French anatomist and surgeon Francois Poupart (1661-1708) who described this structure in relation to hernia in his book "Chirurgie Complete" published in 1695.
Image property of: CAA.Inc. Artist: D.M. Klein
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The suffix [-itis] originates from the Greek and means "inflammation". This suffix is also used to mean "infection", although inflammation is only one of the signs of infection. The symptoms and signs of infection are:
- Edema - localized swelling (tumor)
- Redness- Localized (rubor)
- Localized raise in temperature - Fever (calor)
- Pain - (dolor)
- Localized functional impairment (functio lesa)
The terms in parentheses are the Latin words used to describe these symptoms and sign.
Examples of uses of this suffix are:
- Hepatitis: Inflammation or infection of the liver
- Pancreatitis: Inflammation or infection of the pancreas
- Cholecystitis: Inflammation or infection of the gallbladder [chole-]="gall'; [cyst]="sac" or "bladder"
- Rhinitis: Inflammation or infection of the nose
- Pharyngotracheitis: Inflammation or infection of the pharynx and trachea
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The suffix [-oid] originates from the Greek [oeides], meaning "similar to", "like", or "shaped like". This suffix can be found the the medical terms [sigmoid] meaning "similar or shaped like a sigma"; [sphenoid], meaning "shaped like a wedge"; [cricoid], meaning "shaped like a ring", and [arytenoid] also from the Greek [arytaina], meaning "similar to a ladle".
This suffix is also used in daily conversation, as the following examples illustrate:
- Android - "similar to a human", from the Greek [andros] human
- Anthropoid - similar to a man, from the Greek [anthropos], "man"
- Asteroid - "similar to a star", from the Greek [aster], "star"
- Arachnoid - "similar to a spider", from the latin [arachnid], spider. It refers to the spider-web look of this menynx
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The term [coronary] comes from the Latin root [corona] meaning "crown", therefore [coronary] is used to denote a structure that surrounds another as a crown or a garland. In the heart, the coronary arteries and their branches form a crown that surrounds the heart at the level of the atrioventricular sulcus. There are two coronary arteries, which arises from, the root of the aorta; the right coronary artery (RCA), and the left coronary artery (*). The two main branches that arise from the left coronary artery are the circumflex artery (CFX) and the left anterior descending artery (LAD).
There can be interesting anatomical variations in the coronary arteries of the heart.
Although not in use anymore, the gastric arteries used to be called the "gastric coronaries" as the right and left gastric arteries and the right and left gastroepiploic arteries form a garland of arteries that surround the stomach. The term still does apply to the left gastric veins.
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From the Latin [vertere] meaning "to turn", the term refers to one of the bones that forms the spinal column or raquis. This word was first used by Celsus both to denote the intervertebral joint and the bone itself. The plural form of the term [vertebra] is [vertebrae].
All vertebrae are different, although they have some similarities which allows us to group them by region: cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal. The image shows us a cervical vertebra, characterized by a slender, small vertebral body and two lateral openings, the transverse foramina. If you hover your cursor over the image, a thoracic vertebra will appear. Thoracic vertebrae are characterized by a heart-shaped body, the presence of articular surfaces for the ribs, etc. With few exceptions, all vertebrae have a basivertebral foramen.
Photography by D.M.Klein
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This article is part of the series "A Moment in History" where we honor those who have contributed to the growth of medical knowledge in the areas of anatomy, medicine, surgery, and medical research.
Sir Arthur Keith
Sir Arthur Keith (1866–1955) was a Scottish physician, anatomist and anthropologist. He studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen, earning his Bachelor of Medicine in 1888. He traveled to Siam and worked for three years as a medical officed in a rubber plantation and mine. Upon his return to London, he continued his medical studies at University College. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1894.
Keith held various academic positions, including demonstrator of anatomy at the London Hospital, where his initial anatomical research expanded to include pathological specimens associated with clinical cardiology. His collaboration with Sir James Mackenzie (1853 – 1925), a cardiologist studying cardiac arrhythmias using polygraph tracings (a device used to study cardiac arrythmias before the invention of the electrocardiograph by William Einthoven (1860 – 1927), piqued Keith’s interest in the anatomical basis of heart rhythm disorders.
Image in Public Domain courtesy of Wellcome Foundation
He was also an accomplished artist, and his anatomical illustrations and dissections helped clarify the structure and pathological variations of the atrioventricular conduction system. Through extensive dissection of post-mortem hearts sent by Mackenzie, Keith contributed to understanding the relationship between structural features of the conduction system and clinical manifestations of arrhythmias.
The discovery of the sinoatrial (SA) node is among Keith’s most enduring scientific legacies. Inspired by the 1906 work of Japanese anatomist Sunao Tawara, who described the atrioventricular node and conduction pathways in the mammalian heart, Keith and Martin W. Flack (a medical student at the time) extended this work in a search for the anatomical site responsible for initiating the heartbeat.
In 1906, while studying the heart of a mole, Flack identified a distinct structure at the junction of the superior vena cava and right atrium. Recognizing its histological resemblance to known conduction tissue, Keith and Flack named this structure the sino-auricular node. They hypothesized that this node was the dominant center initiating cardiac rhythm. Their work was published in 1907 in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology. This publication completed the anatomical outline of the conduction system of the heart as we know it today.
Keith was appointed Conservator and Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1908 and transitioned his studies toward evolutionary anatomy and anthropology. He became an influential figure in paleoanthropology, published several books on human evolution, and served as President of the Royal Anthropological Institute and Rector of Aberdeen University. Knighted in 1921 and elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1913, Keith remained active in research and writing until his death in 1955.
Sources:
1. Mohr PD. Illustrations of the heart by Arthur Keith: His work with James Mackenzie on the pathophysiology of the heart 1903–1908. J Med Biogr. 2021;30(3):193–201
2. Silverman ME, Hollman A. Discovery of the sinus node by Keith and Flack: on the centennial of their 1907 publication. Heart. 2007;93(10):1184–1187.
3. Keith A, Flack M. The Form and Nature of the Muscular Connections between the Primary Divisions of the Vertebrate Heart. J Anat Physiol. 1907 Apr;41(Pt 3):172-89. PMID: 17232727; PMCID: PMC1289112.
4. Keith A, Flack M. The form and nature of the muscular connections between the primary divisions of the vertebrate heart. J Anat Physiol 1907;41: 172–189.
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