Marcus Gerbezius (1658–1718) and his first description of a complete atrioventricular block
Abstract
Background: Marcus Gerbezius, a distinguished Slovenian physician and scientist from the turn of the 17th to the 18th Century, published in the year 1717 an article in the annual journal of the German Academy of Natural Scientists in Halle, in which he described a patient with a clinical presentation of extreme bradycardia due to a complete atrioventricular block.Methods: methodology of history of medicine, analysis of archival materials, documents, and various publications.
Results: Presentation of the life and work of Marcus Gerbezius, emphasizing the significance of his pioneering discovery of what is known today as Adams-Stokes Syndrome.
Conclusion: The article by Gerbezius was published almost 50 years before Morgagni’s, and about 150 years before Adams’ or Stokes’ articles on the same subject; therefore the name of Gerbezius should be included in the eponym name of the disorder “Syndrome Gerbezius-Morgagni-Adams-Stokes” – Syndrome GMAS.
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References
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