Bright's disease

Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis.[1] It was characterized by swelling and the presence of albumin in the urine, and was frequently accompanied by high blood pressure and heart disease.

Bright's disease
Diseased kidney from Richard Bright's Reports of Medical Cases Longman, London (1827–1831); Wellcome Library, London
SpecialtyNephrology

Signs and symptoms

The symptoms and signs of Bright's disease were first described in 1827 by the English physician Richard Bright, after whom the disease was named. In his Reports of Medical Cases,[2] he described 25 cases of dropsy (edema) which he attributed to kidney disease. Symptoms and signs included: inflammation of serous membranes, hemorrhages, apoplexy, convulsions, blindness and coma.[3][4] Many of these cases were found to have albumin in their urine (detected by the spoon and candle-heat coagulation), and showed striking morbid changes of the kidneys at autopsy.[5] The triad of dropsy, albumin in the urine and kidney disease came to be regarded as characteristic of Bright's disease.[3]

Subsequent work by Bright and others indicated an association with cardiac hypertrophy, which was attributed by Bright to stimulation of the heart. Subsequent work by Frederick Akbar Mahomed showed that a rise in blood pressure could precede the appearance of albumin in the urine, and the rise in blood pressure and increased resistance to flow was believed to explain the cardiac hypertrophy.[4]

It is now known that Bright's disease is caused by a wide and diverse range of kidney diseases;[1][5][6] thus, the term Bright's disease is retained strictly for historical application.[7] The disease was diagnosed frequently in patients with diabetes;[4] at least some of these cases would probably correspond to a modern diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy.

Treatment

Bright's disease was historically treated with warm baths, blood-letting, squill, digitalis, mercuric compounds, opium, diuretics, laxatives,[2][8] and dietary therapy, including abstinence from alcoholic drinks, cheese and red meat. Arnold Ehret was diagnosed with Bright's disease and pronounced incurable by 24 of Europe's most respected doctors; he designed The Mucusless Diet Healing System, which apparently cured his illness. William Howard Hay, MD had the illness and, it is claimed, cured himself using the Hay diet.[9]

List of people diagnosed with Bright's disease

References

  1. Cameron, J. S. (14 October 1972). "Bright's Disease Today: The Pathogenesis and Treatment of Glomerulonephritis—I". British Medical Journal. 4 (5832): 87–90. doi:10.1136/bmj.4.5832.87. ISSN 0007-1447. PMC 1786202. PMID 4562073.
  2. Bright, R (1827–1831). Reports of Medical Cases, Selected with a View of Illustrating the Symptoms and Cure of Diseases by a Reference to Morbid Anatomy, vol. I. London: Longmans.
  3. Millard, Henry B. (1 January 1884). A treatise on Bright's disease of the kidneys; its pathology, diagnosis, and treatment . New York, W. Wood & Company.
  4. "A treatise on Bright's disease and diabetes : with especial reference to pathology and therapeutics". archive.org. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  5. Peitzman, Steven J. (1 January 1989). "From Dropsy to Bright's Disease to End-Stage Renal Disease". The Milbank Quarterly. 67: 16–32. doi:10.2307/3350183. JSTOR 3350183. PMID 2682170.
  6. Wolf G (2002). "Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs (1819–1885) and Bright's disease". American Journal of Nephrology. 22 (5–6): 596–602. doi:10.1159/000065291. PMID 12381966. S2CID 42309693.
  7. Peitzman SJ (1989). "From dropsy to Bright's disease to end-stage renal disease". The Milbank Quarterly. 67 Suppl 1: 16–32. doi:10.2307/3350183. JSTOR 3350183. PMID 2682170.
  8. Saundby, Robert (22 October 2013). Lectures on Bright's Disease. Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 9781483195360.
  9. Gilman, Goldwin Smith Professor of Human Studies Sander L.; Gilman, Sander L. (23 January 2008). Diets and Dieting: A Cultural Encyclopedia. Routledge. ISBN 9781135870683.
  10. Bailey, Michael R., ed. (2003). Robert Stephenson; The Eminent Engineer. Ashgate. p. XXIII. ISBN 978-0-7546-3679-3.
  11. Rolt 1984, pp. 318–319.
  12. Ross 2010, pp. 242–243.
  13. Mancoff, Debra (1998). Mary Cassatt: Reflections of Women's Lives. London: Frances Lincoln. p. 15.
  14. Commire, Anne (1999). Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Yorkin Publications.
  15. "Emily Dickinson and Death – Emily Dickinson Museum". Emily Dickinson and Death. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  16. "Chester Alan Arthur - Fighting a Hidden Illness | Arizona Health Sciences Library". ahsl.arizona.edu. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  17. Church, W.C. (1892). The Life of John Ericsson. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. pp. 320–323.
  18. Nettles, Tom. Living by Revealed Truth: The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (Ross-Shire, Scotland: Mentor Imprint, 2013), 599-600
  19. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael (2003). Whose Bird? Common Bird Names and the People They Commemorate. New Haven, London: Yale University Press. pp. 47–48. ISBN 978-0-300-10359-5. LCCN 2003113608.
  20. "Death of Mrs. Caroline Hoyt". The Wilmington Daily Republican. 3 October 1898. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  21. "Paddy Ryan Ill", The Allentown Leader, Allentown, Pennsylvania, pg. 2, 11 December 1900
  22. "Col. Roswell Eaton Goodell, One of Lincoln's Democratic Friends". Indianapolis Journal. 53 (293). 20 October 1903. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  23. "HEADS OF THE CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT". ChicagoCop.com. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  24. "Was the Real Lone Ranger a Black Man?". history.com.
  25. Pitz, Henry (1969). The Brandywine Tradition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 162. LCCN 68028457.
  26. "James S Sherman - Great American Biographies Series". Constitutional Law Reporter. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  27. "Ellen Wilson Biography :: National First Ladies' Library". www.firstladies.org.
  28. "Al. Ringling Dead. Veteran Circus Man Stricken with Bright's Disease In Wisconsin" (PDF). The New York Times. 2 January 1916. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  29. "Alice Harrison | Broadway Photographs". www.broadway.cas.sc.edu. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  30. West Virginia Colored Institute (December 1909). "Calmly As a Little Child Lies Down to Sleep" (PDF). The Institute Monthly. II (IX): 1. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 September 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2020 via Drain-Jordan Library, West Virginia State University.
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