Marchiafava-Bignami disease
Encyclopedia
Marchiafava-Bignami disease is a progressive neurological disease characterized by corpus callosum
Corpus callosum
The corpus callosum , also known as the colossal commissure, is a wide, flat bundle of neural fibers beneath the cortex in the eutherian brain at the longitudinal fissure. It connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres and facilitates interhemispheric communication...

 demyelination and necrosis
Necrosis
Necrosis is the premature death of cells in living tissue. Necrosis is caused by factors external to the cell or tissue, such as infection, toxins, or trauma. This is in contrast to apoptosis, which is a naturally occurring cause of cellular death...

 and subsequent atrophy.

Eponym

It was first described in 1903 by the Italian pathologists Amico Bignami
Amico Bignami
Amico Bignami was an Italian physician and entomologistHe was born in Bologna and graduated as a doctor in Rome in 1882. In 1883, he became extraordinary professor of pathology and in 1906, full-time professor at the University of Rome. In 1917, he became professor of medicine, a post he occupied...

 and Ettore Marchiafava
Ettore Marchiafava
Ettore Marchiafava was an Italian physician and zoologist who worked on malariaEttore Marchiafava , was the personal doctor of three popes and the Royal House of Savoy, a senator and professor of Pathological Anatomy at the Sapienza University of Rome...

 in an Italian Chianti
Chianti
Chianti is a red Italian wine produced in Tuscany. It was historically associated with a squat bottle enclosed in a straw basket, called a fiasco ; however, the fiasco is only used by a few makers of the wine now; most Chianti is now bottled in more standard shaped wine bottles...

 drinker. In this patient, Marchiafava and Bignami noticed that the middle two-thirds of the corpus callosum were necrotic.

Causes

It is classically associated with chronic alcoholics
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

and sometimes nutritional deficiencies.

External links

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