An ugly nose and a Nazi father: Bad premise for a cardiac rheumatic disorder

The rheumatic disorder reported on by Abe and coworkers1 in this issue of the Journal has long been labeled as Wegner granulomatosis, ever since Friedrich Wegener,2 a Nazi pathologist working in Poland,3 reported 3 cases in 1937, describing the pathologic disorders as vasculitis. Actually, this disease had first been reported by Wegner's friend, a Berlin pathologist named Heinz Klinger,4 who in 1932 described a case of destructive sinusitis, lung abscesses, and uremia, characterized by angiitis and granulomas, in a report entitled, “Borderline Forms of Periarteritis Nodosa.” Today, this rheumatic disorder is known as granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), and one of the most typical sign is a saddle nose deformity caused by a perforated septum, along with crusting around the nose, stuffiness, and runny and bleeding nose,5 —in few words, an ugly nose!
Source: The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery - Category: Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery Authors: Tags: Editorial commentary Source Type: research