Jean Alexandre Barré (25 May 1880,

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

– 26 April 1967,

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

) was a French

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 ...

who in 1916 worked on the identification of Guillain-Barré-Strohl syndrome, as well as Barré–Liéou syndrome.

Biography

First studies

He studied medicine in

, afterwards serving his internship in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, where he was influenced by Joseph Babinski (1857–1932). In 1912 he obtained his medical doctorate with a thesis on osteoarthropathy associated with

tabes dorsalis Tabes dorsalis is a late consequence of neurosyphilis, characterized by the slow degeneration (specifically, demyelination) of the neural tracts primarily in the Dorsal root ganglion, dorsal root ganglia of the spinal cord (nerve root). These pati ...

Guillain-Barré-Strohl syndrome

''See also

André Strohl André Strohl (20 March 1887 – 10 March 1977) was a French physiologist who was a native of Poitiers. He is remembered for his role in the diagnosis of Guillain–Barré syndrome (sometimes called Guillain–Barré–Strohl syndrome), a form of ...

.'' During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he worked in a neurological unit of the 6th army, directed by

Georges Guillain Georges Charles Guillain () (3 March 1876 – 29 June 1961) was a French neurologist born in Rouen. He studied medicine in Rouen and Paris, where he learned clinical education at several hospitals. He developed an interest in neurology, and his f ...

(1876-1961), with whom he began a longtime collaboration. In 1919 he was appointed professor of neurology in

. He was especially interested in

vestibular The Vestibular (from , "entrance hall") is a competitive examination and is the primary and widespread entrance system used by Brazilian universities to select the students admitted. The Vestibular usually takes place from November to January, ...

function and disorders associated with the

vestibular system The vestibular system, in vertebrates, is a sensory system that creates the sense of balance and spatial orientation for the purpose of coordinating motor coordination, movement with balance. Together with the cochlea, a part of the auditory sys ...

. He was founder of the journal ''Revue d’oto-neuro-ophtalmologie''.

Barré test

Barré is also credited with the "Barré Test" which may identify pronator drift or pyramidal drift, although the test was earlier described by Giovanni Mingazzini. This test is performed by making the

patient A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by Health professional, healthcare professionals. The patient is most often Disease, ill or Major trauma, injured and in need of therapy, treatment by a physician, nurse, op ...

stretch out their

hands A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the koala (which has two opposable thumbs on each "han ...

with the palms facing upwards, and then having the patient close their eyes. If one

hand A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the Koala#Characteristics, koala (which has two thumb#O ...

drops involuntarily (or drops after the physician taps on the patient's palms), the

test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

indicates damage to the

pyramidal tract The pyramidal tracts include both the corticobulbar tract and the corticospinal tract. These are aggregations of efferent nerve fibers from the upper motor neurons that travel from the cerebral cortex and terminate either in the brainstem (''cort ...

. A maneuver that is sometimes used for examining the legs for latent pyramidal

paresis In medicine, paresis (), compound word from Greek , (πᾰρᾰ- “beside” + ἵημι “let go, release”), is a condition typified by a weakness of voluntary movement, or by partial loss of voluntary movement or by impaired movement. Whe ...

is referred to as the "Mingazzini test" (named after Italian neurologist Giovanni Mingazzini 1859-1929).

Written works

Barré was the author of over 800 scientific papers. With Guillain, he was co-author of ''Travaux neurologiques de guerre'' (1920), a book that was published in three editions.WorldCat Identities
(publications) His doctoral thesis, ''Les osteo-arthropathies du tabès'', was a continuation of Jean Charcot's research of the disorder. Barré died in 1967 at age 86.

References

Bibliography

Jean Alexandre Barré
@

Who Named It ''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograp ...

External links

Google Books
Neurological Eponyms edited by Peter J. Koehler, George W. Bruyn, John M. S. Pearce. 1880 births 1967 deaths French neurologists Physicians from Nantes Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg {{France-med-bio-stub