Maurice Lev (1908 – 1994) was an American cardiologist.
Author of over 500 publications in the field of congenital heart diseases and cardiac conduction system pathologies. First publication: ‘Transposition of the Large Vessels’ (1937). Passionate teacher, lecturing at all the medical schools in Chicago, hospitals, and numerous conferences
Eponymously affiliated with Lev disease described in 1964
Biography
- Born 13 November 1908, St.Joseph, Missouri
- 1930 – B.S. degree from New York University
- 1934 – M.D. degree from Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska
- 1935-40 Residency in pathology at Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago, Illinois
- 1941 – Diplomat in Pathological Anatomy
- 1942-46 Served in the US Army as captain, commanding officer of the Fourth Medical Laboratory, and discharged as lieutenant colonel
- 1943 Diplomat in Clinical Pathology
- 1946-47 Assistant Professor of pathology, Creighton University
- 1947-51 Assistant Professor (1947-48), and Associate Professor of Pathology(1948-51), Pathology Department, University of Illinois
- 1951-57 Director of Laboratories, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Miami Beach, Florida
- 1957-82 Director of the Congenital Heart Disease Research and Training Center, Hektoen Institute, Chicago, Illinois
- 1966 – Master of Philosophy, Northwestern University, Chicago. Thesis title: ’Whitehead’s Theory of Evolution’
- 1982-88 Director of the Clinical Laboratories at Deborah Heart and Lung Center,Browns Mills, New Jersey
- 1988-94 Associate Director of the Congenital Heart and Conduction System Center, Heart Institute for Children, Christ Hospital and Medical Center (Illinois), and Professor of Pathology at Rush University (Chicago)
- Died 4 February 1994
Medical Eponyms
Lenègre-Lev disease (1964)
Acquired complete heart block. Fibrous transformation progressive and slow, of degenerative origin, of the two branches of the bundle of His, resulting in progressive conduction disorders:
- block of branch with or without hemibloc of the opposite side
- then complete, paroxysmal then permanent block of auriculoventricular (disease of Adams-Stokes).
1964 – Jean Lenègre, of the Hopital Boucicaut in Paris, described progressive fibrosis of the ventricular conduction system in a series of articles published in French in the 1950s; his first and major reference in English appeared in 1964 [PMID 14153648]
1964 – Maurice Lev, of the University of Miami, saw a similar sclerodegenerative process, often with calcification, in an older age group [PMID 14237429]
Major Publications
- Lev M, Lerner R. The theory of Kent; a histologic study of the normal atrioventricular communications of the human heart. Circulation. 1955;12(2):176-184.
- Lev M. Anatomic basis for atrioventricular block. Am J Med 1964;37:742-8. [Lenègre-Lev disease]
- LevM, Bharati S. The Cardiac Conduction System in Unexplained Sudden Death. Ann Intern Med 1991;115:834.
- BharatiS, Lev M, Kirklin JW. Cardiac Surgery and the Conduction System. Wiley-Blackwell. 1992 (2nd revised edition)
References
- Bharati S. Maurice Lev, MD. Cardiovasc Path 1994;3(3):143-145
eponym
the person behind the name
Doctor in Australia. Keen interest in internal medicine, medical education, and medical history.