Mary Broadfoot Walker: 83 years since a historical discovery

Vitor Martinez de Carvalho; Eduardo de Almeida Guimarães Nogueira; Gleysson Rodrigues Rosa; Yara Dadalti Fragoso

doi:10.1590/0004-282X20170138

Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria, Table of Contents

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2017; 75(11): 825-826
DOI: 10.1590/0004-282X20170138

Historical Note

Mary Broadfoot Walker: 83 years since a historical discovery

Mary Broadfoot Walker: 83 anos desde uma descoberta histórica

Vitor Martinez de Carvalho

¹Universidade Metropolitana de Santos, Departamento de Neurologia, Santos SP, Brasil.

,

Eduardo de Almeida Guimarães Nogueira

¹Universidade Metropolitana de Santos, Departamento de Neurologia, Santos SP, Brasil.

,

Gleysson Rodrigues Rosa

²Harvard Medical School, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Charlestown, MA USA.

,

Yara Dadalti Fragoso

¹Universidade Metropolitana de Santos, Departamento de Neurologia, Santos SP, Brasil.

› Author Affiliations

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Mary Broadfoot Walker was a Scottish physician who, in 1935, described in great detail the effect of an anticholinesterase drug (physostigmine) on the signs and symptoms of myasthenia gravis. An original five-minutes movie is available online and the skepticism of her contemporary British medical doctors is understandable when the drastic effect of the treatment is shown in this movie. What Mary Walker taught us, more than eight decades ago, about myasthenia gravis continues to be the basis of a pharmacological diagnostic test and treatment of this disease.

RESUMO

Mary Broadfoot Walker foi uma médica escocesa que em 1935 descreveu em grande detalhe o efeito de uma droga anticolinesterásica (fisostigmina) nos sinais e sintomas da myasthenia gravis. Um filme original com cinco minutos de duração está disponível online e a reação cética dos colegas médicos contemporâneos de Mary é compreensível dado o drástico efeito terapêutico mostrado neste filme. O que Mary Walker nos ensinou mais de oito décadas atrás continua a ser a base de um teste diagnóstico farmacológico e do tratamento da myasthenia gravis.

Keywords:

myasthenia gravis - physostigmine - neostigmine - acetylcholinesterase

Palavras-chave:

miastenia gravis - fisostigmina - neostigmina - acetilcolinesterase

Full Text

References

References
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