The Pellagra Portraits.

This Arts and Medicine feature reviews the history of pellagra and recounts the role of artist and illustrator John Carroll who, in 1919, painted portraits of people with the vitamin deficiency to document in color the appearance of pellagra skin plaques.

Imágenes digitales del cerebro en la década de 1970: la construcción de una tecnología híbrida / Digital brain imaging in the 1970s building a hybrid technology

La tomografía computarizada (TC), una tecnología basada en la combinación de radiología y computación, fue utilizada para la exploración de un tumor cerebral en una paciente de un hospital de Londres en 1971. La cabeza de la persona se introdujo en un escáner, fabricado por la empresa discográfica británica EMI, para medir la cantidad de radiación absorbida por los diferentes puntos del cerebro. La imagen confeccionada constaba de una matriz tonal digital que se materializó en papel prensa, en tubo de rayos catódicos y en una fotografía Polaroid. En este artículo se mostrará el proceso de producción de la imagen TC, una representación visual que se convertiría, a partir de la década de 1970, en una tecnología habitual para las neurociencias contemporáneas, además de paradigma de representación visual en el tránsito de lo analógico a lo digital. Para ello analizaremos las implicaciones de la imagen radiográfica, inventada en un momento de auge de la imagen-movimiento, donde se enmarcan las cronofotografías, las secuencias de imágenes y la cinematografía. En este análisis haremos hincapié en los diferentes regímenes escópicos donde se encuentran cada una de las imágenes. El conocimiento, que llevó a la construcción del dispositivo, circuló entre la clínica, la industria y el laboratorio. En la construcción de las TC participaron una diversidad de agentes, incluida la computadora, la radiación por rayos X, un equipo de ingenieros electrónicos, un grupo de neurorradiólogos del Hospital Atkinson Marley y el escáner de rayos X, entre otros. Además, veremos la repercusión de varios factores vinculados a la epistemología de la imagen TC, como lo concerniente al reforzamiento clínico en el diagnóstico clínico, la vinculación de lo morfológico a lo psíquico en relación al cerebro y el tránsito de la imagen-movimiento a la imagen-tiempo. (AU)

Computed tomography (CT), a technology based on the combination of radiology and computation, was used to scan a patient’s brain tumor in a London hospital in 1972. The patient’s head was introduced into a scanner, manufactured by the British record company EMI, to measure the amount of radiation absorbed by different points in the brain. The resulting image consisted of a digital tonal matrix that was materialized on newsprint, a cathode ray tube, and a Polaroid photograph. This article describes the production process of the CT image, a visual representation that would become, from the 1970s onwards, a common technology for contemporary neurosciences and a paradigm of visual representation in the transition from analog to digital. To this end, we analyze the implications of the radiographic image, invented at a time of the rise of theimage-movement in which chronophotographs, image sequences, and cinematography are framed. In this analysis, we focus on the scopic regime in which each image is found. The knowledge that led to construction of the device circulated between the clinic, industry, and laboratory. A variety of agents were involved in the construction of CT scans, including the computer, X-ray radiation, a team of electronic engineers, a group of neuroradiologists from Atkinson Marley Hospital, and the X-ray scanner, among others. We also report on the impact of several factors associated with the epistemology of CT imaging, such as the reinforcement of clinical diagnoses, the linking of the morphological to the psychic in relation to the brain, and the transition from image-motion to image-time. (AU)

Differential diagnosis of a thyroid mass, facial malar rash and ptosis on the flora in the primavera by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510).

PURPOSE: The Primavera is considered amongst the greatest and controversial artistic masterpieces worldwide painted by renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli. The aim was to identify any underlying medical foundations for the painting. METHODS: Observational study. RESULTS: The painting reveals, a 'butterfly' malar rash, bilateral ptosis and a clear neck swelling consistent with a goitre in the figure of Flora. This could be explained by concomitant Graves' disease and systemic lupus erythematosus, or other presentations of multiple autoimmune syndrome. CONCLUSION: These findings highlight the likely presentation of the earliest pictorial depictions of thyroid disease with systemic lupus erythematosus and emphasize the exactitude of depiction demonstrated by Botticelli in renaissance era.

A damned soul with goiter. "The life of Christ" (c. 1480) by Giovanni Martino Spanzotti.

The church of San Bernardino in Ivrea (Piedmont) houses a cycle of frescoes of "The Life of Christ" by the Italian painter Giovanni Martino Spanzotti. In the painting, a damned soul of the Hell with a large bi-lobar goiter is represented, confirming the interest of Renaissance artists towards thyroid diseases.

Science, Anatomy, and Art: Revisiting Leonardo da Vinci, Pioneer of Modern Anatomy.

BACKGROUND: Leonardo da Vinci, the artist and scientist, was an archetype figure of the Renaissance era. He was an autodidactic polymath in natural sciences, engineering, and physical sciences, imbued with universality, prodigious inventive imagination, and curiosity to know and understand the world around him. Among his myriad activities, anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics of the musculoskeletal system and the underlying systems fully engaged him. Leonardo dissected dozens of human and animal corpses to study. His anatomical illustrations were precise, combining art and science with an impeccable integration of both. Multiple drawings, diagrams, sketches, and designs are found in his notes. Leonardo's style was intensely personal, unveiling his thoughts, passions, and emotions. We analyzed significant biographic aspects of Leonardo's life, remarking on his scientific and life conceptions and their manifestation in his anatomical designs. The contribution of preceding anatomists is reported as a source of his inspiration as well as motivation to successors. Leonardo da Vinci left no publications, but rather an extensive collection of personal notebooks. Leonardo's contribution to modern anatomy was enormous and he is considered by the scientific and medical community as the father of the modern anatomy.

The Death of Sodium Pentothal: The Rise and Fall of an Anesthetic Turned Lethal.

For nearly a century, sodium pentothal was the undisputed king of anesthetics. Anesthesiologists were not, however, the sole consumers of pentothal, as psychiatrists used it to treat acute anxiety during psychoanalysis. The associated drug-induced inhibitions were attractive not only to psychotherapists, but also to a new generation of policing and Cold War espionage searching for the elusive truth serum. Cameo appearances of pentothal in media, film, and popular culture propagated the anesthetic's negative public image. While legal challenges to the admissibility of pentothal-induced confessions and congressional investigations of clandestine truth serum programs may have tainted the popular anesthetic, it was pentothal's widespread adaptation as part of the lethal injection cocktail that finally killed the king of anesthetics as pharmaceutical companies around the world refused to manufacture what had been transformed into a largely unprofitable drug, associated with capital punishment.

The Snake Pit: Mixing Marx with Freud in Hollywood.

In 1948, the motion picture The Snake Pit was released to popular and critical acclaim. Directed by Anatole Litvak, the film told of the mental illness and recovery of one patient, who survived overcrowding and understaffing and was treated by a neo-Freudian psychiatrist known as Dr. Kik. It was based on a novel of the same title by Mary Jane Ward, who had been treated at Rockland State Hospital in New York. Building upon exposés of horrid hospital conditions in the press, The Snake Pit helped motivate reforms in the treatment of the mentally ill. Via unpublished correspondence and drafts of the film's screenplay, this article explores the populist and antifascist themes in The Snake Pit, which came from the director, screenwriters, and the politics of the immediate post-WWII era. It also describes the case history of Mary Jane Ward and her treatment by Gerard Chrzanowski, the real "Dr. Kik." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Henri Matisse's medical history: Multiple health problems and impact on creativity.

Matisse (1869-1954) is regarded-along with Pablo Picasso-as one of the most influential contemporary artists of the 20th century. Books, biographies and illustrations often show the artist in a wheelchair or in bed, producing cut-papers with a pair of scissors or painting with a specially extended brush. Usually it is reported that abdominal surgery left Matisse chair- and bed-bound. The life of Matisse was marked by various further health problems that have never been considered in full in a medical journal. Moreover, his biography is full of examples of the reverse interaction between health and art, whereby not only health problems influenced his art but also how his artistic activity had an impact on his health and mental condition. Therefore, a comprehensive view on the relationship between health and art in the life and art of Matisse is attempted here. Matisse's medical history not only provides an instructive example of life-long multiple somatic and psychosomatic health issues, but also contributes to the humanistic view of medicine by demonstrating how he impressively captured the problems of his artistic work and life through vitality and creative power.