Gonzalo Rodríguez Lafora (25 July 1886 – 27 December 1971) was a Spanish

neurologist Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...

and

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

. He was a disciple of Nicolás Achúcarro and

Santiago Ramón y Cajal Santiago Ramón y Cajal (; 1 May 1852 – 17 October 1934) was a Spanish neuroscientist, pathologist, and histologist specializing in neuroanatomy, and the central nervous system. He and Camillo Golgi received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or M ...

and one of the most brilliant examples of the Spanish Neurological School (or Cajal School). He was best known now for describing (in 1911) the intracytoplasmic

inclusion bodies Inclusion bodies are aggregates of specific types of protein found in neurons, and a number of tissue (biology), tissue cells including red blood cells, bacteria, viruses, and plants. Inclusion bodies of aggregations of multiple proteins are also ...

in "

Lafora disease Lafora disease is a rare, autosomal recessive genetic disorder which results in myoclonus epilepsy and usually results in death several years after the onset of symptoms. The disease is characterized by the accumulation of inclusion bodies, kno ...

". In total, he published approximately 200 papers covering a wide range of subjects in neurology, psychiatry, and neuropathology. He made seminal contributions not only to the clinical and scientific literature but also to the training of many noted disciples who paid him due homage as a true "maestro." Throughout his intellectual endeavors, Lafora manifested a singular purpose and intensity and a burning devotion to scientific honesty. In 1910, Fritz Heinrich Lewy discovered what became known as

Lewy bodies Lewy bodies are the inclusion bodies – abnormal aggregations of protein – that develop inside neurons affected by Parkinson's disease (PD), the Lewy body dementias (Parkinson's disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB)) ...

, and compared them to earlier findings by Lafora. In 1913, Lafora described another case, and acknowledged Lewy as the discoverer, naming them ''cuerpos intracelulares de Lewy'' (Lewy bodies). Konstantin Nikolaevich Trétiakoff found them in 1919 in the

substantia nigra The substantia nigra (SN) is a basal ganglia structure located in the midbrain that plays an important role in reward and movement. ''Substantia nigra'' is Latin for "black substance", reflecting the fact that parts of the substantia nigra a ...

of PD brains, called them ''corps de Lewy'' and is credited with the eponym. Eliasz Engelhardt argued in 2017 that Lafora should be credited with the eponym, because he named them six years before Trétiakoff.

References

Lafora GR, Glueck B. (1911) Beitrag zur Histopathologie der myoklonischen Epilepsie. ''Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie'' 6: 1– 14. 1886 births 1971 deaths Spanish neurologists 20th-century Spanish physicians Lewy body dementia {{psychiatrist-stub

See also

References