History
The origin of the term "Virchow's Triad" is of historical interest, and has been subject to reinterpretation in recent years. While both Virchow's and the modern triads describe thrombosis, the previous triad has been characterized as "the consequences of thrombosis", and the modern triad as "the causes of thrombosis".
Rudolf Virchow elucidated the etiology of pulmonary embolism, whereby thrombi occurring within the veins, particularly those of the extremities, become dislodged and migrate to the pulmonary vasculature. He published his description in 1856 In detailing the pathophysiology surrounding pulmonary embolism, he alluded to many of the factors known to contribute to venous thrombosis. While these factors had already been previously established in the medical literature by others, for unclear reasons they ultimately became known as Virchow's triad. This eponym did not emerge in the literature until long after Virchow's death. One estimate of the first use of the phrase dates it to the early 1950s.
Although the concept of the triad is usually attributed to Virchow, he did not include endothelial injury in his description. This has been attributed to a dispute Virchow had with Jean Cruveilhier, who considered local trauma of primary importance in the development of pulmonary artery thrombosis.
Read more about this topic: Virchow's Triad
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A man will not need to study history to find out what is best for his own culture.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history of work has been, in part, the history of the worker’s body. Production depended on what the body could accomplish with strength and skill. Techniques that improve output have been driven by a general desire to decrease the pain of labor as well as by employers’ intentions to escape dependency upon that knowledge which only the sentient laboring body could provide.”
—Shoshana Zuboff (b. 1951)
“No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our history has determined the very existence of politics, the cause of freedom versus tyranny.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)