James Herrick

Dr James Bryan Herrick (August 11, 1861 - March 7, 1954) was as American doctor who is credited with the description of several important phenomena in 20th century medicine.

Biography and discoveries

Herrick studied and taught at various Chicago, Illinois hospitals, and became professor of medicine there. He was equally interested in humanities: he had a lifelong passion for Geoffrey Chaucer's writings.

His first discovery, in 1904, was that of sickle-shaped red blood cells on the blood film of a medical student from Grenada. The disease he carried would be called sickle-cell disease on the basis of this finding, now known to be highly prevalent in West Africa and various other parts of the world.

Herrick's second finding was the mechanism of myocardial infarction ("heart attack"). He postulated that thrombosis in the coronary artery led to the symptoms and abnormalities of heart attacks. This was published in 1912. In 1918 he was one of the first to encourage electrocardiography in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction.

He is commemorated in an annual award and a memorial lecture.

References

Herrick's papers

Herrick JB. Peculiar elongated and sickle-shaped red blood corpuscles in a case of severe anemia. Arch Intern Med 1910;6:517-21.
Herrick JB. Clinical features of sudden obstruction of the coronary arteries. JAMA 1912;59:2015-2019. Reproduced in JAMA 1983;250:1757-65. PMID 6350634.
Herrick JB. Concerning thrombosis of the coronary arteries. Trans Assoc Am Phys 1918;33:408-15.

About Herrick

Acierno LJ, Worrell LT. James Bryan Herrick. Clin Cardiol 2000; 23:230-2. PMID 10761818.
Hammerschmidt DE. About the cover illustration: James Herrick and the description of sickle-cell disease. J Lab Clin Med 2002;139:126.

External link

Biography at whonamedit.com