[Strasbourg, capital of mycosis fungoides research from 1919 to 1964].
Fiche publication
Date publication
octobre 2011
Lien Pubmed
Résumé
Both "Pautrier microabscesses" and "Woringer-Kolopp disease" terms make reference to two professors of dermatology of the Faculty of Medicine in Strasbourg. These eponyms, and especially that of Pautrier, are universally used by pathologists throughout the world. Their origin is amazing. Louis Marie Pautrier (1876-1958) is indeed not the father of the microabscesses which are designed by his name. This pathognomonic image of mycosisfungoides was in fact described by Jean Darier in 1889. It is probably due to the close bonds between Pautrier and his colleagues in New York if his name has been attached erroneously for two reasons to this histological sign, since abscesses contain by definition polymorphonuclear leucocytes and not lymphocytes. Pautrier was between 1919 and 1958 one of the major French dermatologists having a passion for granulomatoses and mycosis fungoides. His student Frederic Woringer (1903-1964) published in 1939 the clinical case of a mysterious affection, which he had interpreted as a case of Paget disease. It is only after his death that this characteristic entity has been called Woringer-Kolopp disease. Kolopp was a dermatologist with private practice in Metz and addressed the biopsy of the princeps case to Strasbourg. This rare affection is considered today as an entity within the spectrum of epidermotropic T lymphomas, among which mycosis fungoides is the major entity.
Référence
Hist Sci Med. 2011 Oct-Dec;45(4):415-26.