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CARTAS AO EDITOR
Ca as ao Edi o , Ac a Med Po 2021 Jan;34(1):62-67
Le e o he Edi o abou he A icle “Ba e o
Ba é?: The Need o End a Common Misp onuncia ion
Among Po uguese Physicians”
Ca a ao Edi o sob e o A igo “Ba e ou Ba é?: A
Necessidade de Eliminação de uma P onunciação
Inco e a En e os Médicos Po ugueses”
Keywo ds: Eponyms; His o y o Medicine; Medical Educa ion
Pala as-cha e: Epónimos; His ó ia da Medicina; Educação Mé-
dica
Dea Edi o ,
We ound he ques ion aised by Sá-Ma a and Almeida
abou he spelling o eponyms in e es ing.1 We a e a aid
ha disease names will ha dly be co ec ly spel by Po u-
guese physicians, because i would equi e p o iciency in
se e al o eign languages such as English, F ench o I al-
ian, no o men ion non-Eu opean languages. On he o he
hand, i can also sound s ange o hea a non-Po uguese
speake spelling “Egas Moniz” o “Co ino de And ade”, bu
i any doub emains, con ex is king.
Wha is he place o eponyms in mode n Medicine?
Some o hem like Pa kinson’s o Alzheime ’s disease a e
co ne s one diso de s ecognized pe se. They a e s ongly
linked o he clinical synd omes hey ep esen , e en by he
non-medical communi y, a eason why hey can ha dly be
de ached om hem. O he s, like Guillain-Ba é synd ome
(GBS) o Machado Joseph disease (MJD), ha e been side-
lined by a mo e ‘pa hophysiological’ e m which ela es o
hei clinical cha ac e is ics: “acu e in lamma o y demyeli-
na ing polyneu opa hy” in he case o GBS and “spinoce -
ebella a axia ype 3” in MJD, al hough eponyms a e s ill
equen ly used. Such kind o designa ion (‘columna -lined
esophagus’) has al eady been p oposed o eplace ‘Ba -
e ’s esophagus’.2
Disease eponyms can o he wise lead o po en ial con u-
sions. They equen ly men ion only some o he physicians
who had an impac on he his o y o a disease o e en gi e
c edi o he e oneous pe son. Jean-Alexand e Ba é has
ecognisable me i s in sys ema izing he clinical ea u es o
GBS bu sha ed hem wi h se e al o he physicians o he
han Geo ges Guillain.3 An I alian neu ologis , Gio anni
Mingazzini, also p eceded Ba é in he desc ip ion o he
p ona o d i , a sign o py amidal mo o weakness in he
uppe limbs which is known as ‘Ba é sign’.3
None heless, in imes o in ense echnological p essu e,
eponyms a e ye a g ound o b ing us medical ca e p o-
ided by eal doc o s, no machines. We belie e ha hei
ecogni ion and lea ning should be encou aged as a s ep o
place mode n Medicine in he cou se o a b oade his o ical
con ex .
REFERENCES
1. Sá-Ma a E, Almeida N. Ba e o Ba é? The need o end a common
misp onuncia ion among Po uguese physicians. Ac a Med Po .
2020;33:704.
2. Bani-Hani K, Bani-Hani B. Columna -lined esophagus: ime o d op
he eponym o “Ba e ”: his o ical e iew. J Gas oen e ol Hepa ol.
2008;23:707–15.
3. Koehle PJ, B uyn GW, Pea ce JM, edi o s. Neu ological eponymous.
Ox o d: Ox o d Uni e si y P ess; 2000.
Diogo REIS CARNEIRO1,2, João And é SOUSA1
1. Neu ology Depa men . Cen o Hospi ala e Uni e si á io de Coimb a. Coimb a. Po ugal.
2. Facul y o Medicine. Uni e si y o Coimb a. Coimb a. Po ugal.
Au o co esponden e: Diogo Reis Ca nei o. [email p o ec ed]
Recebido: 06 de ou ub o de 2020 - Acei e: 07 de ou ub o de 2020 | Copy igh © O dem dos Médicos 2021
h ps://doi.o g/10.20344/amp.15052