Ida Bianco

Biography

• Born 1917 in Rome Italy
• 1939 – Clinica medica Universitaria with Prof. Cesare Frugoni
• 1941 – MD, La Sapienza, University of Rome. Graduated with honors in internal medicine. Haematology research in the Clinica medica Universitaria as a voluntary assistant (without receiving a salary until 1949)
• 1945 – Married Ezio Silvestroni (1905-1990) taking the name Ida Bianco Silvestroni
• 1954 – Bianco and Silvestroni founded and directed the Centro studi della microcitemia di Roma
• 1960 – Founded the Associazione nazionale per la lotta contro le microcitemie to investigate the pathogenesis and determine better treatments for anemias
• 1977 – Bianco and Silvestroni awarded the Premio internazionale Manca per la medicina
• 1994 – Conference: La prevenzione dell’anemia mediterranea in Italia, oggi
• 1999 – Honoured in Rome with the conference “Thalassemic Syndromes: a Symposium in honor of Ezio Silvestroni and Ida Bianco”
• Died 20 April 2006 in Rome, Italy

Medical Eponyms

Silvestroni-Bianco anaemia (1948)

Archaic term for heterozygotous thalassaemia. A blood disorder having the characteristics of both sickle cell anemia and Mediterranean anemia. In 1943 Silvestroni and Bianco, described a hereditary anomaly, in healthy subjects (7 out of 400 subjects examined) suggesting the name “microcitemia”

Brief history of thalassemia

The Italian physician, Antonio Cardarelli (1821-1937) described “splenic anemia” or “infantile splenic pseudo leukemia”. In 1925 American pediatricians Thomas Benton Cooley (1871-1945) and Pearl Lee described an anemia syndrome in children of Italian and Greek immigrants. They outlined the clinical picture of the disease and called it erythroblastic anemia. It was later termed named Cooley’s anaemia [known today as thalassemia major].

1926 in Italy, Rietti described a disease having a symptomatology similar to the Cooley’s anaemia but lighter, that became known as ‘La Malattia di Rietti-Greppi-Micheli and today as thalassemia intermedia.

The term ‘thalassemia’ was coined in 1932 by George Hoyt Whipple (1878-1976) of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. The term is derived from the Greek words ‘thalassa’ (Θάλασσα) meaning ‘sea’ and the suffix -aima (αίμα) or ‘blood,’ denoting the high prevalence of the disorder in people originating from the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

Cooley had described a clinical entity, and it may be wise to use his name to distinguish this disease. We do not like the term “erythroblastic anemia” used by Cooley, as there is nothing especially characteristic about this feature of the blood. The disease is limited almost wholly to Italians, Greeks and Syrians, i. e., to the people originating about the Mediterranean Sea. For this reason the term “thalassemia,” derived from the Greek Θάλασσα , meaning the great sea and used to designate the Mediterranean, may have an appeal.

GH Whipple , WL Bradford. 1932: 364

Major Publications

• Silvestroni E, Bianco I. Prime osservazioni di resistenze globulari aumentate in soggetti sani e rapporto fra questi soggetti e i malati di cosiddetto itterro emolitico con resistenze globulari aumentate. Bollettino e Atti della Accademia Medica di Roma, 1943, 69, 293.
• Silvestroni E, Bianco I. Microcitemie e morbo di Cooley. Bollettino e Atti della Accademia Medica di Roma, 1945-46, 71: 3.
• Silvestroni E, Bianco I. Risposta alla nota del Dott. Momigliano Levi in tema di nosografismo dell’anemia microcitica costituzionale. Minerva Med. 1947;38(30 Pt 2):65-69.
• Silvestroni E, Bianco I. Nuove ricerche sulla trasmissione ereditaria della microcitemia. Policlinico Prat. 1947;54(50):1359-1363.
• Bianco I. La resistanza emoglobinica nei portatori di microcitemia e di falcemia. Policlinico Prat. 1947;55(4):103-105
• Silvestroni E, Bianco I. Alcune osservazioni sui famigliari di malati di morbo di Cooley e sulla frequenza dei portatori di microcitemia nel Ferrarese. La Ricerca scientifica. 1947;17(5):655-657.
• Silvestroni E, Bianco I. Ricerche cliniche, genetiche ed ematologiche sui malati de anemia microcitica costituzionale e di morbo di Cooley. Haematologica. 1948;31(2):135-190.
• Silvestroni E, Bianco I. Nuove ricerche su l’eziologia del morbo di Cooley e prime osservazioni sulla frequenza della microcitemia nel Ferrarese. Minerva Med. 1948;39(8):205-209.
• Bianco I. Sulla frequenza della microcitemia in alcuni paesi delle Puglie. Minerva Med. 1948;39(9):232.
• Silvestroni E, Bianco I. Sulla frequenza della microcitemia nel Ferrarese e in alcune altre regioni d’Italia. Policlinico Prat. 1948;55(14):417-420.
• Silvestroni E, Bianco I. Genetic aspects of sickle cell anemia and microdrepanocytic disease. Blood. 1952;7(4):429-435.
• Silvestroni E, Bianco I. Screening for microcytemia in Italy: analysis of data collected in the past 30 years. Am J Hum Genet. 1975;27(2):198-212.
• Silvestroni E, Bianco I. Education, screening, and genetic counselling in thalassaemia. Br Med J. 1980;281(6233):149.
• Bianco I. La prevenzione delle malattie microcitemiche: 6. Congresso internazionale, Roma, 17-19 aprile 1980
• Bianco I. Microcitemie e anemia mediterranea. 1992
• Bianco I. Le talassemie : un problema medico-sociale: ieri e oggi. 1998
• Bianco I. Storia della microcitemia in Italia: pagine di scienza e di vita. 2002

References

Biography

• Cazzola M. Ida Bianco Silvestroni. From red cell osmotic fragility to molecular biology of globin genes. A long, productive life with thalassemia. Haematologica. 1996;81(5):385-386.
• Convegno internazionale. The Thalassemic syndromes: a Symposium in honour of Ezio Silvestroni and Ida Bianco. Roma, 13 dicembre 1999
• In ricordo di Ida Bianco. SIVeMP. 2019: 39-41
• Ida Bianco Silvestroni. Medicina Online, 2014
• De Santis D. Bianco Silvestroni Ida. Scienza a due voci. 2017
• Ida Bianco. Il Centro Microcitemie di Roma
• Cocanari F. Ida Bianco Silvestroni. edscuola
• Bibliography. Bianco, Ida. WorldCat Identities

Eponym

• Von Jaksch R. Über Leukämie und Leukozytose im Kindesalter [Leukemia and Leukocytosis in Childhood] Wiener klinische Wochenschrift. 1889; 2(22): 435-437
• Von Jaksch. Über Diagnose und Therapie der Erkrankungen der Blutes [Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of the Blood], Prager Medicinische Wochenschrift 1890; 15(31): 389-391
• Cooley TB, Lee PA. A series of cases of splenomegaly in children with anemia and peculiar bone changes, Transactions of the American Pediatric Society 1925; 37: 29–30
• Cooley TB. von Jaksch’s Anemia, Am J Dis Child. 1927; 33(5): 786-797
• Cooley TB. Likenesses and Contrasts in the Hemolytic Anemias of Children, Am J Dis Child. 1928; 36(6): 1257
• Whipple GH, Bradford WI. Racial or familial anemia of children associated with fundamental disturbances of bone and pigment metabolism (Cooley-von Jaksch) Am J Dis Child 1932; 44(2): 336-365
• Cooley TB, Lee PA, A series of cases of splenomegaly in children with anemia and peculiar bone changes. Hematology Landmark Papers of the Twentieth Century 2000: 113-117
• Siddiqui S, Steensma DP, Kyle RA. Thalassemia and Thomas Benton Cooley. Mayo Clin Proc. 2017;92(11):e161-e162.