Louis Gallavardin was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 and cardiologist remembered for the Gallavardin phenomenon

Gallavardin phenomenon

The Gallavardin phenomenon is a clinical sign found in patients with aortic stenosis. It is described as the dissociation between the noisy and musical components of the systolic murmur heard in aortic stenosis. The harsh noisy component is best heard at the upper right sternal border radiating to...

.

Biography

Louis Gallavardin studied medicine at the Lyon medical school, becoming interne in 1895 and Médecin des Hôpitaux de Lyon in 1902. He published 360 papers on cardiovascular medicine from 1898 to 1945, covering the whole subject apart from congenital malformations. Until 1910 his papers were concerned with general medicine, and after 1910 he focused on cardiology.

His book La Tension artérielle en Clinique, published in 1910, was the standard text on the measurement of blood pressure. He realised the importance of electrocardiography, and published on arrhythmias, particularly ventricular tachycardia

Ventricular tachycardia

Ventricular tachycardia is a tachycardia, or fast heart rhythm, that originates in one of the ventricles of the heart...

. He described a type of aortic stenosis which was not rheumatic

Rheumatic fever

Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that occurs following a Streptococcus pyogenes infection, such as strep throat or scarlet fever. Believed to be caused by antibody cross-reactivity that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain, the illness typically develops two to three weeks after...

 in origin, and described effort syncope

Syncope (medicine)

Syncope , the medical term for fainting, is precisely defined as a transient loss of consciousness and postural tone characterized by rapid onset, short duration, and spontaneous recovery due to global cerebral hypoperfusion that most often results from hypotension.Many forms of syncope are...

 in the condition. He studied angina pectoris, describing the syndrome in Les Angines de Poitrine in 1925; he maintained the belief that coronary artery disease was the cause.

He founded an independent school of cardiology in Lyon at a time when Louis Henri Vaquez

Louis Henri Vaquez

Louis Henri Vaquez was a French physician who practiced medicine in Paris.In 1890 he earned his medical doctorate, and in 1898 became professeur agrégé. In 1918 he was appointed professor of clinical medicine and elected a member of the Academy of Medicine...

dominated cardiology in France.