Handbook of clinical neurology
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Review Historical Article
Chapter 30: historical aspects of the major neurological vitamin deficiency disorders: the water-soluble B vitamins.
This historical review addresses major neurological disorders associated with deficiencies of water-soluble B vitamins: beriberi, Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, pellagra, neural tube defects, and subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord. Beriberi: Beriberi was known for millennia in Asia, but was not described by a European until the 17th century when Brontius in the Dutch East Indies reported the progressive sensorimotor polyneuropathy. The prevalence of beriberi increased greatly in Asia with a change in the milling process for rice in the late 19th century. ⋯ Shortly thereafter the therapeutic efficacy of vitamin B(12) on subacute combined degeneration was demonstrated by West and Reisner and others. By 1955, Hodgkin determined the molecular structure of cyanocobalamin using computer-assisted x-ray crystallography, allowing complete chemical synthesis of vitamin B(12) in 1960 by an international consortium. Beginning in the late 1950s, the absorption and biochemistry of vitamin B(12) were elaborated, and several lines of evidence converged to support an autoimmune basis for pernicious anemia.
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Review Historical Article
Endovascular therapy for acute ischemic stroke.