Soma Weiss
Soma Weiss (1898-1942) was a Hungarian-born American physician
In 1929, along with pathologist George Kenneth Mallory (1900-1986) described hemorrhagic lacerations of the cardiac orifice of the stomach due to vomiting.
Eponymously remembered for Mallory-Weiss Syndrome/lesion/tear and Charcot-Weiss-Baker Syndrome.
Biography
- Born on January 27, 1898 in n Bistriţa, Transylvania
- 1916 – studied physiology and biochemistry at the Royal Hungarian University
- 1920 – emigrated to the USA
- 1921 – BA, Columbia University
- 1923 – MD, Cornell University; worked the pharmacological institute of Cornell University, studying the effects of digitalis.
- 1925 – research fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School based at Boston City Hospital. With Herrmann Ludwig Blumgart (1895-1977) conducted experiments with in-vivo circulating blood radioactive tracers, the first practical method of measuring circulation in time
- 1929 – along with pathologist George Kenneth Mallory (1900-1986) described hemorrhagic lacerations of the cardiac orifice of the stomach due to vomiting – Mallory-Weiss syndrome
- 1939 – physician-in-chief and professor at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital
- Died on January 31, 1942 from a ruptured intracranial aneurysm aged 44
Medical Eponyms
Mallory–Weiss Lesion (1929)
The characteristic of this lesion are longitudinal mucosal lacerations in the distal esophagus and proximal stomach, which are usually associated with forceful or prolonged vomiting, retching or coughing.
In 1929 George Mallory and Soma Weiss described 15 cases. They identified a characteristic history of heavy alcohol use followed by persistent nausea, retching and vomiting.
It was assumed by the clinicians that the cause of haematemesis was a ruptured varice however there was no underlying liver cirrhosis identified. Of the 15 cases they document, 4 died from the blood loss and in postmortem there were similar lesions. These lesions were described as fissure-like and were located in the mucosa around the cardia of the stomach. In 1 of the 4 patients that died, haematemesis was not a feature however was found to have the same lesion.
Mallory and Weiss arrived at the conclusion that these lesions were related to persistent vomiting rather than alcohol due to a case with persistent vomiting in pregnancy. They then went one step further to simulate increased pressure by dilating the stomach against a tied pylorus reproducing the lacerations at the cardia in a cadaveric study.
In 1932 Mallory and Weiss report on two further cases, one which would be considered classical and the second which might now be viewed differently. The second case was not identified until post mortem when they discovered a lonitudinal ulcer at the oesophageal junction. Based on some infrequent prior episodes of small volume haematemesis, Mallory and Weiss drew the conclusions that acute longitudinal lacerations could lead to chronic longitudinal lacerations and ulcers. Perhaps this would now be more inkeeping with Barrett’s Oesophagus.
In their paper Mallory and Weiss identify – Johann Friedrich Hermann Albers (1833) as the first to document an ulcer in the lower oesophagus. Mallory and Weiss also comment on the work of Heinrich Irenaeus Quincke and the less common oesophageal ‘peptic’ ulcer. Mallory and Weiss then separated their work from that reported by Georges Dieulafoy based on histology.
Charcot-Weiss-Baker syndrome (1933)
Transient attacks of syncope with marked slowing in heart rate and lowering of blood pressure, and loss of consciousness, caused by strong pressure on the neck over the bifurcation of the carotid arteries, which cause the excitation of baroreceptors of the carotid sinuses. The attacks may also be produced by a sudden turn of the head or wearing a tight collar. More commonly affecting those with atherosclerotic disease or over he age of 45.
Major Publications
- Blumgart HL, Weiss S. Studies on the Velocity of Blood Flow II. The Velocity of Blood Flow in Normal Resting Individuals, and a Critique of the Method Used. J Clin Invest. 1927; 4: 15-33.
- Blumgart HL, Weiss S. Studies on the velocity of Blood Flow III. The Velocity of Blood Flow and Its Relation to Other Aspects of the Circulation in Patients with Rheumatic and Syphilitic Heart Disease. J Clin Invest. 1927; 4: 149-172.
- Blumgart HL, Weiss S. Studies on the Velocity of Blood Flow IV. The Velocity of Blood Flow and Its Relation to Other Aspects of the Circulation m Patients with Arteriosclerosis and m Patients with Arterial Hypertension. J Clin Invest. 1927; 4: 173-199
- Blumgart HL, Weiss S. Studies on the Velocity of Blood Flow V. The Physiological and the Pathological Significance of the Velocity of Blood Flow. J Clin Invest. 1927; 4: 199-210
- Blumgart HL, Weiss S. Studies on the Velocity of Blood Flow VI The Method of Collecting the Active Deposit of Radium and its Preparation for Intravenous Injection. J Clin Invest. 1927; 4: 389-399
- Blumgart HL, Weiss S. Studies on the Velocity of Blood Flow VII The Pulmonary Circulation Time in Normal Resting Individual. J Clin Invest. 1927; 4: 399-426
- Weiss S, Blumgart HL. Studies on the Velocity of Blood Flow VIII. The Velocity of Blood Flow and Its Relation to Other Aspects of the Circulation in Patients with Pulmonary Emphysema. J Clin Invest. 1927; 4: 555-574
- Weiss S, Robb GP, Blumgart HL. The velocity of blood flow in health and disease as measured by the effect of histamine on the minute vessels. American Heart Journal, St. Louis, 1929, 4: 664-691.
- Mallory GK, Weiss S. Hemorrhages from lacerations of the cardiac orifice of the stomach due to vomiting. American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 1929; 178: 506–15 [Mallory-Weiss syndrome; Mallory-Weiss lesion]
- Weiss S, Mallory GK. Lesions of the cardiac orifice of the stomach produced by vomiting. Journal of the American Medical Association, Chicago, 1932; 98(16): 1353-1355 [Mallory-Weiss syndrome; Mallory-Weiss lesion]
- Weiss S, Baker JP. The Carotid Sinus Reflex in Health and Disease: Its Role in the Causation of Fainting and Convulsions, Medicine 1933; 12: 297-354. [Charcot-Weiss-Baker syndrome]
References
Biography
- van den Tweel JG. Weiss, Soma (1898–1942) In: Pioneers in Pathology. 2017: 548-550
Eponymous terms
Mallory-Weiss syndrome
- Albers JFH. Über stechende Geschwüre der Speiseröhre und der Atemwege. Journal Der Chirurgie Und Augen-heilkunde 1833; 19: 1
- Dieulafoy G. Exulceratio simplex. L’intervention chirurgicale dans les hématémèses foudroyantes consécutives à l’exulcération simple de l’estomac. Bulletin de l’Académie nationale de médecine 1898; 39: 49-84.
- Dieulafoy G. Exulceratio simplex. Clinique médicale de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, 1898: II.
- Quincke H. Ulcus oesophagi ex digestione. Deutsches Archiv für klinische Medicin. 1879; 24: 72-79.
- Carr JC. The Mallory-Weiss Syndrome. Clin Radiol. 1973 Jan;24(1):107-12
- Herbella FA, Matone J, Del Grande JC. Eponyms in esophageal surgery, part 2. Dis Esophagus. 2005;18(1):4-16.
Charcot-Weiss-Baker syndrome
- Czermak JN. Über mechanische Vagus-Reizung beim Menschen. Jenaische Zeitschrift für Medicin und Naturwissenschaft. 1866; 2: 384-386
- Charcot JM. Leçons sur les maladies du système nerveux, faites a la Salpêtrière. Paris 1872-1873
Eponym
the person behind the name
Graduated Medicine in 2020 from Queens University Belfast. Interested in Internal Medicine.