Granulomatosis with polyangiitis
The new name for Wegener's granulomatosis
Abstract
Mr. Editor, in March 2008, the article "Wegener Granulomatosis: clinical, diagnosis and treatment on five cases" was published in the Medical Journal of Uruguay (1), where we reported recent experience in the Systemic Autoimmune Diseases Unit to the subject So, we do not notice the strong questioning in maintaining Wegener's name to that entity, remembering in this way who will make his initial description, Dr. Friedrich Wegener (2). Subsequently, the circumstances in which Wegener made his contribution were widely disseminated and the name change of the disease went from being an aspiration to being a concrete fact. In systemic vasculitis it has been suggested that they should be designated for their clinical and / or pathological characteristics instead of invoking an eponym, as in this case, a surname related to the Nazi movement and crimes against humanity (2).
References
(2) Woywodt A, Haubitz M, Haller H, Matteson EL. Wegener's granulomatosis. Lancet 2006; 367(9519): 1362-6.
(3) Falk RJ, Jennette JC. ANCA disease: where is this field heading? J Am Soc Nephrol 2010; 21(5): 745-52.
(4) Falk RJ, Gross WL, Guillevin L, Hoffman G, Jayne DR, Jennette JC, et al. Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's): an alternative name for Wegener´s granulomatosis. Ann Rheum Dis 2011; 70(4): 704.
(5) Woywodt A, Matteson EL. Wegener's granulomatosis-probing the untold past of the man behind the eponym. Rheumatology 2006; 45(10): 1303-6.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
