Tracy Putnam
Encyclopedia
Tracy Jackson Putnam was the co-discoverer, together with H. Houston Merritt
, of Dilantin for controlling epilepsy
.
He graduated from Harvard College in 1915. Later from Harvard medical school in 1920. He worked by the Boston City Hospital and in the New York Neurological Institute at Columbia University. He was promoted to director after his works with phenytoin
.
At his time there were quotas for Jewish physicians. He opposed the existence of the quotas. He was forced to resign from Columbia in 1947, maybe because of this.
He studied multiple sclerosis
together with Alexandra Adler
. He was one of the first persons to propose as early as in 1930-s a vascular cause for multiple sclerosis
, resurrecting the previous works from Eduard von Rindfleisch
. The idea which remained obscure until the syndrome of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency
(CCSVI) was associated with the multiple sclerosis in 2008.
H. Houston Merritt
H. Houston Merritt was one of the pre-eminent academic neurologists of his day. As the chair of the Neurological Institute of New York from 1948 to 1967, he oversaw the training of hundreds of neurologists; 35 of his former students have become chairs of academic neurology departments across the...
, of Dilantin for controlling epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
.
He graduated from Harvard College in 1915. Later from Harvard medical school in 1920. He worked by the Boston City Hospital and in the New York Neurological Institute at Columbia University. He was promoted to director after his works with phenytoin
Phenytoin
Phenytoin sodium is a commonly used antiepileptic. Phenytoin acts to suppress the abnormal brain activity seen in seizure by reducing electrical conductance among brain cells by stabilizing the inactive state of voltage-gated sodium channels...
.
At his time there were quotas for Jewish physicians. He opposed the existence of the quotas. He was forced to resign from Columbia in 1947, maybe because of this.
He studied multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
together with Alexandra Adler
Alexandra Adler
Alexandra Adler was a neurologist and the daughter of psychoanalyst Alfred Adler. She has been described as one of the "leading systematizers and interpreters" of Adlerian psychology. In 1937, Adler and Tracy Jackson Putnam conducted a study on a brain of a multiple sclerosis victim...
. He was one of the first persons to propose as early as in 1930-s a vascular cause for multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
, resurrecting the previous works from Eduard von Rindfleisch
Eduard von Rindfleisch
Georg Eduard von Rindfleisch was a German pathologist who was a native of Köthen . He studied medicine in Würzburg and Berlin, earning his doctorate in 1859. After attaining his degree he was an assistant to Rudolf Virchow, and later practiced medicine in Breslau, Zurich and Bonn...
. The idea which remained obscure until the syndrome of chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency
Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency
Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency is a term developed by Italian researcher Paolo Zamboni in 2008 to describe compromised flow of blood in the veins draining the central nervous system...
(CCSVI) was associated with the multiple sclerosis in 2008.