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Georges Marinesco and the early research in neuropathology

From the Mina Minovici National Institute of Legal Medicine (O.B., M.C., D.D., G.C.C.) and Victor Babes National Institute of Pathology (D.A.), Bucharest, Romania.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Octavian Buda, Mina Minovici National Institute of Legal Medicine, Sos. Vitan-Birzesti 9, 042122 Bucharest 4, Romania octbuda{at}voxline.ro

Objective: To present the scientific contributions of Georges Marinesco (1863–1938) and place his achievements within the context of early neuropathology research.

Background: Neuropathology is a relatively recent medical field, its origins dating to the late 19th century.

Results: One of the most important neuroscientists of that period was the Romanian-born Georges Marinesco. He became a neurologist under Charcot’s guidance at the Salpêtrière Hospital, in Paris. In 1892, Paul Blocq and Marinesco gave a first account of senile plaques, having used their pathologic skills in the examination of nine deceased epileptic patients. They did not, however, relate the plaques to dementia. Marinesco made discoveries in neuropathology which he described from a histopathologic perspective, and introduced new medical terms such as neuronophagia, chromatolysis, and medullomyoblastoma. He also drew correlations between clinical neurologic findings and morphology, for example in congenital cerebellar ataxia, syringomyelia, and parkinsonism. From 1899 he used cinematography as a medical research tool.

Conclusion: Marinesco was a prolific researcher in the field of neuropathology, especially neurodegeneration but also in clinical neurology. He is now considered the founder of the modern Romanian school of neurology.

Disclosure: The authors report no disclosures.

Received May 1, 2008. Accepted in final form September 23, 2008.