Freida Young

Freida ‘Yarmalinsky‘ Young (1910 – 2004) was an English physician and pathologist who spent most of her career working as a pathologist in Willesdon General Hospital, London. She is eponymously known for her research into “Dyke-Young anaemia” in 1938.

• 1910 – Born Freida Yarmalinsky on March 22 in London, England.
• 1933 – MB BS (Hons); MRCS (Eng), LRCP (Lond) – University College, London University of London. Distinction in medicine and in surgery examinations, with licence to practice.
• 1938 – Assistant pathologist and resident medical officer, The Royal Hospital, Wolverhampton. Published a paper alongside Sidney Campbell Dyke describing macrocytic haemolytic anaemia.
• 1941 – Diploma in Clinical Pathology
• Pathologist, Willesdon General Hospital, London
• 2004 – Died January 23 in London, England

Medical Eponyms

Dyke-Young anaemia (1938)

In 1938, Freida Young and Sidney Campbell Dyke (1886-1975) published a series of cases of ‘macrocytic haemolytic anaemia’ characterized by splenomegaly and haemolytic anaemia with increased indirect bilirubin, increased RBC fragility, reticulocytosis and macrocytosis. Microcytes or spherocytes were not prominent. The patients exhibited either an acute fulminant course, or a protracted relapsing and remitting course. Splenectomy was of doubtful benefit for the four patients in whom it was performed.

Dyke and Young distinguished their cases from the congenital cases of Anatole Chauffard (1907), in that the latter exhibited prominent microcytosis and a predictable response to splenectomy. Lederer’s acute cases were thought to be a subtype of their own.

Others applied the eponym “Dyke-Young” to the chronic macrocytic cases to distinguish them from the acute transient cases of the Lederer-Brill type. We now understand that they were probably variations of one and the same disease, autoimmune haemolytic aneamia.

Major Publications

• Sheldon JH. On the carbohydrate mechanisms in anorexia nervosa. Lancet, 1938; 231(5970): 257-259
• Dyke SC, Young F. Macrocytic haemolytic anaemia associated with increased red cell fragility. Lancet, 1938; 232(6006): 817-821 [Dyke-Young anaemia]
• Young F. Pneumococcic Meningitis Treated with Sulfanilamide: Recovery. Br Med J. 1938; 2: 286-287
• Sheldon JH, Young F, Dyke SC. Acute dermatomyositis: associated with reticulo-endotheliosis. Lancet 1939; 233(6020): 82-84
• Young F. Post-traumatic epidermoid cysts. Lancet. 1951;1(6657):716-718.
• Young F. Severe post-operative thrombocytopenic purpura. Br Med J. 1957;2(5050):919-920.

Controversies

• Not FG Young (Prof Young)

References

Biography

• Freida Yarmalinsky. Royal College Licence to practice. Br Med J 1933;1:209

Eponym

• Chauffard A, Fiessinger N. Ictere congenital hemolytique avec lesions globulaires. Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société médicale des hôpitaux de Paris, 1907; 24: 1169-1178
• Packman CH. The spherocytic haemolytic anaemias. Br J Haematol. 2001;112(4):888-899.
• Timperley WR, Burston J, Howl E. Sidney Dyke. J Clin Pathol. 2003;56(5):323-326.