Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

Description

Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (spinal form of muscular atrophy) is the commonest disease within a group of conditions called Hereditary Motor and Sensory Neuropathies (HMSN).

Virchow, Schultze, and others had reported cases of peroneal atrophy previously, but in 1886 medical knowledge had advanced sufficiently to accept this entity as a nosologic addition.

The simultaneous publications by Charcot and Marie in France and by Tooth in England do not attest to coincidence but to the fact that the medical world was ready to appreciate the finer clinical distinctions existing within the large group of progressive muscular atrophies.

History of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

Associated Persons

• Friedrich Schultze (1848 – 1934)
• Jean-Martin Charcot (1825 – 1893)
• Pierre Marie (1853 – 1940)
• Howard Henry Tooth (1856 – 1925)
• Johann Hoffmann (1857 – 1919)

Alternative names

• Charcot-Marie-Tooth-Hoffman disease

References

Historical articles

• Charcot JM, Marie P. Sur une forme particulière d’atrophie musculaire progressive souvent familiale débutant par les pieds et les jambes et atteignant plus tard les mains. La Revue de médecine 1886; 6: 96-138 [English translation: Concerning a special form of progressive muscular atrophy: often familial starting in the feet and legs and later reaching the hands. Arch Neurol. 1967; 17(5):553-557]
• Tooth HH. The peroneal type of progressive muscular atrophy. Thesis; for the degree of M.D. in the University of Cambridge, 1886
• Hoffmann J. Weitere Beitrag Zur Lehre von der hereditären progressiven spinalen Muskelatrophie im Kindersalter nebst Bemerkungen über den fortschreitenden Muskelschwund im Allgemeinen. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Nervenheilkunde, 1897;10:292-320

Review articles

• Brody IA, Wilkins RH. Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease, Arch Neurol. 1967;17(5):552-557.