Letter to the Editor about the Article "Barrett or Barré?: The Need to End a Common Mispronunciation Among Portuguese Physicians"

R e i s a C i e n í i c a d a O d e m d o s Médicos www. a c a m e d i c a p o u g u e s a . c o m 67 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