Guillaume Duchenne
Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne (born September 17, 1806 in Boulogne; died September 15, 1875) was a French neurologist.
He was first to describe several nervous and muscular disorders and, in developing medical treatment for them, created electrodiagnosis and electrotherapy. He applied electrodes for recording the path that electricity took in a contracting muscle’s fibres. Duchenne investigated every major superficial muscle with his development and application of surface electrodes, which were used to measure abnormal and normal muscle action.
Born in 1806 in the French seaside town of Boulogne, Duchenne was the son of a line of seafarers. He studied at Douai and Paris. Although he turned his back on family tradition when he chose to become a doctor, there's a definite touch of the maritime in one of his unique contributions to neuromuscular science. For example, Duchenne fashioned a "harpoon," a small hollowed-out instrument used to penetrate the skin of living subjects and extract samples of muscle tissue for examination. He used the technique - the forerunner of today's muscle biopsy -- to examine muscle tissues of the same patients at various ages.
Duchenne, a quiet, introspective young man, had begun his medical practice in Boulogne treating fishermen and their families. Then Duchenne's wife died shortly after giving birth to their son; the wife's family blamed Duchenne for her death. Prone to depression and acting perhaps from an unfounded sense of guilt, Duchenne agreed to let his mother-in-law take over his son's upbringing. As a result, Duchenne would remain estranged from his son for many years. Although only in his 20s, Duchenne nearly gave in to melancholy at this point. He neglected his patients and virtually abandoned his practice.
But he was revitalized by an odd fascination: his growing interest in the ability of electricity, when applied to a patient's skin, to cause muscles to contract. He resumed his medical practice. Then, at age 36, he moved to Paris. Lacking a formal appointment, he visited hospital wards across the city, seeking out intriguing cases of nerve and muscle disorders. Duchenne continued his use of "faradism," the application of electricity to the skin for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. He built his own electrical box-like machine and carried it with him on rounds to stimulate the nerves and muscles of patients. This was important in that it allowed him to map the muscles of the body and note their functions.
Guillaume Duchenne was the first person to extensively use the induction coil in for research and medical purposes. Duchenne, who is considered the father of electrotherapy, began in the 1840s to use the induction coil to extensively study muscles and paralysis. He noted that by varying the interrupter rate on the induction coil (and thereby varying the frequency of the high voltage pulses) he could cause muscles to either twitch (slow interrupter rate) or be in a tetanic or constant contraction state (fast interrupter rate). Duchenne then went on to extensively study the muscles of the hand, arm, foot and face. He did this by passing the high voltage from the induction coil through a muscle (which he called "localized faradization") and seeing what sort of movement its contraction caused. Duchenne discovered that a movement (raising a finger, moving the arm in a certain direction, creating a smile) was usually not caused by the contraction of just one muscle but rather required coordination between a number of muscles. Duchenne also studied paralysis and developed a technique for determining its various causes. He determined that if a paralyzed muscle contracted due to localized faradization then the cause of the paralysis was in the brain. In other words, the muscle was fine but the control mechanism was damaged. If the muscle did not contract due to localized faradization, then the muscle or nerve was damaged. Duchenne also used the induction coil for therapy in certain cases of paralysis. He noted that in the case of nerve injuries if some electrical contractility remained in the muscle (i.e. he could get the muscle to contract by putting high voltage through it) that recovery with localized faradization was rapid but if there were no contractions the recovery was very slow. Duchennes study of muscles and paralysis through the use of the induction coil eventually laid the groundwork for the field of neurology.
Duchenne was considered one of the greatest clinicians of the nineteenth century. Charcot, in a tribute to Duchenne called him "My Master. He was also identified as great neuropathologist. He will be remembered for developing the elements for meticulous neurological examination to which he added electrical stimulation as a diagnostic test in localization. The accomplishments also included a delineation for tabetic locomotor ataxia, research on acute poliomyelitis, and description of a disease entity known as Progressive Bulbar Paralysis. He also identified Pseudohypertrophic Muscle Dystrophy as a primary muscle disease. He wrote much on lead poisoning
Some of his other works include:
- electrical stimulation as a localization test in Neurological examination.
- tabetic locomotor ataxia
- acute poliomyelitis
- identified pseudohypertrophic muscle dystrophy
- identified progressive bulbar paralysis
- studies into lead poisoning
Duchenne died on September 15, 1875, in Paris.
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French physicians | 1806 births | 1875 deaths