Ella H. Oppenheimer

Biography

• 1897 – Born 9 September in Baltimore, Maryland, the only child of Cora Hutzler and Henry Oppenheimer.
• 1918 – Attended A.B. Goucher College and awarded an A.B degree.
• 1919-1924 Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Pubic Health, then transferred to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, receiving an MD degree in 1924.
• 1925 – Married stockbroker Henry S. Miller and promoted to Instructor of the Pathology department, John Hopkins University School of Medicine.
• 1945-1953 Assistant professor of pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
• 1954-1970 Associate professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
• 1970-1981 Associate professor emeritus, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
• 1975-1976 – President of the paediatric Pathology Club
• 1973 – Honorary Doctor of Science, Goucher College.
• 1975 – President of the Pediatric Pathology Club.
• 1981 – Died 13 January in Pikesville, Baltimore.

Ella earned the enormous respect of her peers during an era in which discrimination of women was rampant; maintained the freedom to pursue her diverse hobbies; and allocated the energy to raise a family and sustain a marriage.

Rosethal D, Viglione M 2003

Students thrived on her decisive, no-nonsense approach. She created both interest and desire to learn. There was awe of her – and let us face it – a certain amount of fear, too. Not that fear is always a bad thing pedagogically when it is so obviously mixed with the underlying warmth and understanding which Dr. Oppenheimer also imparted. She had that rare attribute of knowing how to both comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.

Yardley, J (MD)

Medical Eponyms

Landing-Oppenheimer syndrome (1957, 1959)

Landing-Oppenheimer syndrome describes a form of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis. Transmitted as an autosomal recessive trait, lipidosis is characterised by an increased susceptibility to infection and ceroid infiltration of the liver, spleen and small intestine.

The syndrome is defined in two papers:

• Landing BH, Shirkey HS. A syndrome of recurrent infection and infiltration of viscera by pigmented lipid histiocytes. [1957]
• Oppenheimer EH, Andrews EC Jr. Ceroid storage disease in childhood. [1959]

Landing-Oppenheimer syndrome is described in Oppenheimer’s “Ceroid storage disease in childhood”, in which two cases are reported. In both cases there demonstrated a long history of nutritional disturbance and liver cirrhosis was found at necropsy. In the first case, “lipidoses” was described, with numerous Ceroid-filled cells in the spleen, liver and intestinal mucosa. In the second, ceroid deposition occurred in liver macrophages. No ceroid was found in smooth muscle or other parenchymal cells as is in vitamin E deficiency.

Major Publications

• MacAllum WG, Oppenheimer EH. Differential centrifugation. A method for the study of filterable viruses, as applied to vaccinia. JAMA 1922; 78: 410–411.
• Oppenheimer EH. Congenital atresia of pancreatic duct with cystic fibrosis of pancreas. Archives Of Pathology. 1940; 29: 790-795.
• Oppenheimer EH, Andrews EC Jr. Ceroid storage disease in childhood. Pediatrics. 1959; 23(6): 1091-1102. [Landing-Oppenheimer syndrome]
• Esterly JR, Oppenheimer EH. The pathologic manifestations of intrauterine rubella infection. Arch Otolaryngol. 1973;98(4):246-248.
• Oppenheimer EH, Esterly JR. Myocardial lesions in patients with cystic fibrosis of the pancreas. Johns Hopkins Med J. 1973;133(5):252-261.
• Oppenheimer EH, Esterly JR. Hepatic changes in young infants with cystic fibrosis: possible relation to focal biliary cirrhosis. J Pediatr. 1975;86(5):683-689.
• Oppenheimer EH, Paplanus SH. Department of Pathology History 1931-1964. Johns Hopkins.

References

Biography

• [Ella H. Oppenheimer] Johns Hopkins University. 1955.
• Miller, Ella H. Oppenheimer (Dr.) Jewish Museum of Maryland.
• Oppenheimer, Ella Hutzler Miller. Conchology.
• Rosethal D, Viglione M. Ella H. Oppenheimer (1897-1981). Path Ways, Johns Hopkins. 2003; 5(4): 8-9.
• Ella H. Oppenheimer. Faculty & Resident Catalog, Johns Hopkins Department of Pathology.

Eponym

• Landing BH, Shirkey HS. A syndrome of recurrent infection and infiltration of viscera by pigmented lipid histiocytes. Pediatrics. 1957; 20(3): 431-438.