Jules Froment ( Lyon, 1878 – 1946) was a French neurologist. He earned his doctorate in 1906 with a thesis on

heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, hea ...

s associated with thyrotoxicosis. For much of his career, he was a professor at Lyon.

Life

Froment is remembered for his work with neurological diseases. During World War I, he was stationed at

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

, where he treated soldiers with nervous disorders. After the war, he co-wrote an important work with

Joseph Babiński Joseph Jules François Félix Babinski ( pl, Józef Julian Franciszek Feliks Babiński; 17 November 1857 – 29 October 1932) was a France, French-Poland, Polish professor of neurology. He is best known for his 1896 description of the Babinski sig ...

(1857–1932) concerning the

etiology Etiology (pronounced ; alternatively: aetiology or ætiology) is the study of causation or origination. The word is derived from the Greek (''aitiología'') "giving a reason for" (, ''aitía'', "cause"); and ('' -logía''). More completely, e ...

of phenomena such as " shell shock" and "combat hysteria." The study was titled ''Hystérie, pithiatisme et troubles nerveux d'ordre réflexe en neurologie de guerre'', and was considered controversial at the time. Also with Babiński, Froment is credited with describing a disease characterized by a combination of vasomotor disorders, muscular

atrophy Atrophy is the partial or complete wasting away of a part of the body. Causes of atrophy include mutations (which can destroy the gene to build up the organ), poor nourishment, poor circulation, loss of hormonal support, loss of nerve supply t ...

and tissue damage. It is now known as Babinski-Froment syndrome. Froment is credited with devising a series of tests for nerve dysfunction, including a simple way to test

ulnar nerve In human anatomy, the ulnar nerve is a nerve that runs near the ulna bone. The ulnar collateral ligament of elbow joint is in relation with the ulnar nerve. The nerve is the largest in the human body unprotected by muscle or bone, so injury is ...

weakness in the hand (known as Froment's sign): if a patient holds a sheet of paper between

thumb The thumb is the first digit of the hand, next to the index finger. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position (where the palm is facing to the front), the thumb is the outermost digit. The Medical Latin English noun for thumb ...

and index finger and the thumb flexes, this indicates

palsy. This test is used to assess the condition of the adductor pollicis muscle.

Written works

* ''La préhension dans les paralysies du nerf cubital et le signe du pouce''; La presse médicale, Paris, 1915, 23: 409. * ''Heredodegenerations retinienne et spino-cerebeleuse; variantes ophtalmoscopiques et neurologique présentés par trois generations successive'' Journal de médecine de Lyon, 1937: 153–163. * ''Troubles nerveux d’ordre reflexe. In their: Hysterie, pithiatisme et troubles nerveux d’ordre reflexe''. J. Babinski, J. Froment: Paris, Masson, 1917.

External links

''Jules Froment''
@ Who Named It {{DEFAULTSORT:Froment, Jules 1878 births 1946 deaths French neurologists Physicians from Lyon

Life

Written works

See also

External links