Karl Hürthle was a German physiologist and histologist who was a native of Ludwigsburg

Ludwigsburg

Ludwigsburg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg urban district with about 87,000 inhabitants...

.

In 1884 he received his doctorate from the University of Tübingen, where he remained until 1886, working as a prosector

Prosector

A prosector is a person with the special task of preparing a dissection for demonstration, usually in medical schools or hospitals. Many important anatomists began their careers as prosectors working for lecturers and demonstrators in anatomy and pathology....

 at the anatomical institute. At Tübingen

Tübingen

Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...

 he was a student and assistant to physiologists Karl von Vierordt

Karl von Vierordt

Karl von Vierordt was a German physician. He studied at the universities of Berlin, Göttingen, Vienna, and Heidelberg, and began a practice in Karlsruhe in 1842...

 (1818-1884) and Paul Grützner

Paul Grützner

Paul Grützner was a German physiologist who was a native of Festenberg, Silesia ....

 (1847-1919). In 1887 he became an assistant to Rudolf Heidenhain

Rudolf Heidenhain

Rudolf Peter Heinrich Heidenhain was a German physiologist who was born in Marienwerder, East Prussia . He studied medicine at the Universities of Halle and Berlin. After receiving his doctorate, he remained in Berlin as an assistant to Emil du Bois-Reymond...

 (1834-1897) at the physiological institute in Breslau, and in 1895 attained the title of professor extraordinarius. In 1898 he succeeded Heidenhain at the Department of Physiology in Breslau.

Later in his career he worked at the physiological institute at Tübingen, and in the Department of Experimental Pathology

Pathology

Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....

 and Therapy

Therapy

This is a list of types of therapy .* Adventure therapy* Animal-assisted therapy* Aquatic therapy* Aromatherapy* Art and dementia* Art therapy* Authentic Movement* Behavioral therapy* Bibliotherapy* Buteyko Method* Chemotherapy...

 at the Kerckhoff Institute in Bad Nauheim

Bad Nauheim

Bad Nauheim is a town in the Wetteraukreis district of Hesse state of Germany. , Bad Nauheim has a population of 30,365. The town is located approximately 35 kilometers north of Frankfurt am Main, on the east edge of the Taunus mountain range. It is a world-famous resort, noted for its salt...

 (now known as the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research).

Hürthle is remembered for contributions made in the field of haemodynamics. He performed extensive research involving blood pressure

Blood pressure

Blood pressure is the pressure exerted by circulating blood upon the walls of blood vessels, and is one of the principal vital signs. When used without further specification, "blood pressure" usually refers to the arterial pressure of the systemic circulation. During each heartbeat, BP varies...

, blood viscosity, intracranial circulation, blood supply of organs, vasodilatation, and a phenomenon he called Windkesseleffekt, which he demonstrated plays an important role in the maintenance of blood pressure.

He also described the motion phenomena of the arterial

Artery

Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart. This blood is normally oxygenated, exceptions made for the pulmonary and umbilical arteries....

 vascular wall, performed studies involving the structure of striated muscle

Striated muscle

Striated muscle tissue is a form of fibers that are combined into parallel fibers. More specifically, it can refer to:* Cardiac muscle .* Skeletal muscle* Branchiomeric muscles...

, and investigated the function and morphology

Morphology (biology)

In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....

 of the thyroid gland. The eponymous Hürthle cell

Hurthle cell

A Hürthle cell is a cell in the thyroid that is often associated with Hashimoto's thyroiditis as well as follicular thyroid cancer.-Histology:...

is named after him, which is a type of cell found in the thyroid.

Selected publications

• Zur Technik der Untersuchung des Blutdruckes (Studies involving blood pressure), 1888
• Untersuchungen über die Innervation der Hirngefäße (Studies on the innervation of brain vessels), 1889
• Ueber eine Methode zur Registrierung des arteriellen Blutdrucks beim Menschen (A method for registration of arterial blood pressure in humans), 1896
• Über die Struktur der querstreiftem Muskelfasern von Hydrophilus 1909
• Histologische Struktur und optische Eigenschaften der Muskeln (Histological structure and optical properties of muscles), 1925
• Blutkreislauf im Gehirn (Blood circulation in the brain), 1927
• Die mittlere Blutversorgung der einzelnen Organe (The average blood supply to the individual organs), 1927
• Über tonische und pulsatorische Bewegungen der Arterienwand (About pulsatory tonic and movements of the arterial wall), 1939