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Biomedical subjects

P Voswinckel

Publications and source records attributed to P Voswinckel.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

The Gordon-Hey reflex.

Nowadays, a neurologist, even in many years of practice, rarely sees a patient with Sydenham's chorea. Things were quite different during the period +/- 1850 - +/- 1950, when 'chorea minor' was the subject of hundreds of publications. In those days, the practising neurologist stood a good chance of coming across patients with such a degree of muscular hypotonia (a characteristic feature of severe Sydenham's) that he was inclined to infer the presence of paralysis. Those instances used to be denoted as chorea mollis or chorea paralytica. According to textbooks then considered to be authoritative, any doubt regarding the diagnosis of Sydenham's chorea was largely removed if one succeeded in eliciting Gordon-Hey's reflex. This eponym turns out to be as fascinating as the question of its still largely unclarified pathophysiology. In spite of that, mention of the reflex has wholly disappeared from the textbooks of neurology since circa forty years.

Chorea↗
PubMed2000

From uroscopy to urinalysis.

Within several decades, 1830-1860, a theoretical system which had left its mark on the practice and rationale of medicine for more than 2000 years, the theory of the four humors, collapsed, taking with it uroscopy as the most important diagnostic tool of the physician's trade. What was the prior and subsequent nature of 'science'? At the transition from uroscopy to urinalysis, contemporary writings manifest a change of paradigm which is unparalleled in the history of medicine, exemplified by the black urine of melanoma. The upheaval changed the doctor-patient relationship ('from bedside medicine to laboratory medicine') and brought forth a 'new type of scientist'. After 160 years of further development, it is time to abandon the triumphant stance of scientific medicine over traditional uroscopy and to restore the role of the latter in terms of what it meant for many centuries in the paradigm of human action: an area of projection of sensory physical experience of the world as well as a platform of medical competence and therapeutic interaction, embedded in the awareness of the limits of human existence.

Europe↗
PubMed1994

A marvel of colors and ingredients. The story of urine test strip.

The history of the urinary test papers does not being in the post-war period. As early as the 1880's some practitioners and pharmacists tried to replace the complicated wet-chemical procedures and apparatus by "dry chemistry." The first popular test paper for sugar and albumin originated in England in 1883. Dry reagents for proving hematuria have been available since the beginning of this century. Until the 1930s a wide palette of commercial urine tests with "modern" brand names was established. A methodological breakthrough was created by the spot test chemistry inaugurated by the Austrian, Fritz Feigl, about 1920. Using the capillary properties of filter paper in enhancing color reactions he founded a new area of analytical chemistry. Many of the pioneers were recruited from Jewish scientists. In this lecture is proposed that their emigration and banishment as well as the Second World War have stopped the development of urinary diagnostics on the European continent. In the post-war period the American industry succeeded to the leading position in the researching and marketing of test papers. In 1956, the triumphal progress of the "stick tests" began with the "Clinistix" (Ames Company, today Bayer Diagnostic).

Color↗
PubMed1989

[A farewell to the Thormählen test for melanoma. New facts on the lif of the prematurely deceased Johannes Thormahlen, M.D., (1860-1892)].

For the first time since the introduction of Thormählen's test in 1887, a biography of its creator has been written and it is presented here. It reveals the tragic fate of a young doctor ill with tuberculosis towards the end of the last century. At the same time, an historic evaluation of the Thormählen's test and its place in the history of clinical chemistry is attempted. A urine test is taken as an example of the wide range of possible diagnostic methods; starting with the very basic observation of dark urine, followed by rudimentary chemical analyses, leading up to the most modern laboratory procedures. Nowadays, the urine test for melanoma must be considered as obsolete.

History, 19th Century↗
PubMed1988

[Not Available].

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Germany↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Not Available].

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Germany↗