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Anne Pappenheimer Forbes (1911 - 1992)

Anne Pappenheimer Forbes (1911 – 1992) was an American endocrinologist and physician.

Following house staff training at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Forbes moved to Massachusetts General Hospital where she helped to establish the Ovarian Dysfunction Clinic. She then relocated to Harvard Medical School, where she eventually became clinical professor of medicine emeritus. Here, she worked with Dr. Fuller Albright and participated in the identification of many diseases, including Forbes-Albright Syndrome, a pituitary gland disorder.

Dr. Forbes served as assistant professor of medicine at the Pahlavi University Medical School in Shiraz, Iran, from 1967 to 1969.


Biography
  • 1911 – Born Anne Pappenheimer on November 11, in New York City
  • 1932 – BA, Radcliffe College
  • 1935 – Married William H. Forbes (1903-1995) on the 31st December, Bronx, New York. Five children (three daughters, two sons)
  • 1936 – Graduated medicine, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University
  • 1936-1938 – Interned at Johns Hopkins Hospital
  • 1938-1948 – Research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital in the endocrinology lab of Fuller Albright (1900-1969)
  • 1962-1967 – Assistant clinical professor of medicine, Harvard medical school
  • 1967-1969 – Assistant professor of medicine at the Pahlavi University Medical School in Shiraz, Iran
  • 1970-1980 – Associate clinical professor of medicine, Harvard medical school
  • 1980 – Retired; took up raising sheep, shearing the wool herself then spinning and dyeing it by hand
  • 1992 – Died 25 February

Medical Eponyms
Forbes-Albright syndrome (1954)

A disorder characterized by galactorrhea and amenorrhoea. Three types recognized:

  • Chiari-Frommel syndrome: persistent galactorrhoea and amenorrhea after giving birth. [1882]
  • Ahumada-Del Castillo syndrome: galactorrhoea-amenorrhoea not associated with pregnancy. There is oestrogen deficiency and decreased urinary gonadotropin levels. [1932, 1953]
  • Forbes-Albright syndrome: galactorrhea-amenorrhea caused by a chromophobe prolactin-producing adenoma of the pituitary. [1954]

In 1954, Forbes, Albright and colleagues described 15 non-acromegalic women with persistent amenorrhea-galactorrhea and suggested that these findings were due to hypersecretion of pituitary prolactin. Eight of these patients had enlarged sellae with three chromophobe adenomas surgically demonstrated. The remaining seven had normal sellae.


Major Publications

References

Biography

Eponymous term


Dr Jenny Stuart-Smith LITFL author

Graduated from Cardiff Medical School in 2017 with MBBCh and BSc in Psychology and Medicine. Currently working as a doctor in the emergency department at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, Australia.

BA MA (Oxon) MBChB (Edin) FACEM FFSEM. Emergency physician, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.  Passion for rugby; medical history; medical education; and asynchronous learning #FOAMed evangelist. Co-founder and CTO of Life in the Fast lane | Eponyms | Books | Twitter |

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