František Chvostek (; ; 21 May 1835 – 16 November 1884) was a Czech-Austrian military

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and lecturer in

internal medicine Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of ...

. He published articles on a wide variety of medical disorders but is most notable for having described Chvostek's sign which he described in 1876.Chvostek F. ''Beitrag zur Tetanie.'' Wien Med Press 1876;17:1201-3, 1225-7, 1253-8, 1313-16.

Biography

Chvostek was born in Místek,

Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...

, to a leather tanner. He joined the army as a military surgeon and studied at the Josephinian Military Academy of Surgery in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, receiving his doctorate in 1863 and becoming a regimental physician and surgeon at Vienna's Garrison Hospital. From 1863 to 1867 he was the assistant of Adalbert Duchek (1824–1882) and from 1868 to 1871 he lectured on electrotherapy at the Josephinian Academy. In 1871 he took over Duchek's medical clinic, which he led until the academy's closure in 1874. He then returned to the Garrison Hospital's department of internal medicine, where he remained until his death in 1884.

Contributions to medicine

Chvostek published at least 163 journal articles before his death at age 49, focusing on a broad range of topics including

neuron A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, excitable cell (biology), cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network (biology), neural net ...

al excitability, electrotherapy, Grave's disease,

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms depend on the stage it presents: primary, secondary, latent syphilis, latent or tertiary. The prim ...

, and

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. He published a paper in the ''Vienna Medical Press'' in 1876 describing what would become to be known as Chvostek's sign: muscular spasm in the face when the

facial nerve The facial nerve, also known as the seventh cranial nerve, cranial nerve VII, or simply CN VII, is a cranial nerve that emerges from the pons of the brainstem, controls the muscles of facial expression, and functions in the conveyance of ta ...

is tapped in people with latent tetany. Chvostek's only son, Franz Chvostek, wrote numerous papers about the sign and was among the first to associate it with hypoparathyroidism in an article published in 1907.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chvostek, Frantisek 1835 births 1884 deaths Czech military doctors Austrian military doctors People from Austrian Silesia Austrian people of Czech descent Physicians from Austria-Hungary Physicians from the Austrian Empire