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Was Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827) affected by alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency?
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Perciaccante, A., Negri, C., Coralli, A., Charlier, P., Appenzeller, O. and Bianucci, Raffaella (2018) Was Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827) affected by alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency? Medical Hypotheses, 111 . pp. 1-3. doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2017.12.014 ISSN 0306-9877.
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Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2017.12.014
Abstract
Niccolò Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827), known as Ugo, is one of the masters of the Italian poetry. A writer and a revolutionary, he embraced the ideals of the French Revolution and took part in the stormy political discussions, which the fall of the Republic of Venice had provoked. Despite his poor health, Foscolo lived an adventurous life serving as a volunteer in the Guardia Nazionale and in the Napoleonic army. Following Napoleon's fall (1814), he went into voluntary exile in early 1815. He reached London in Sept. 1816 and lived in poverty at Turnham Green (Chiswick) until his premature death. Foscolo's medical history has been poorly investigated and the cause of his death remains unclear. In an attempt to shed light on his clinical history, we analyzed his Correspondence (Epistolario), a series of more than 3000 letters written between 1794 and 1827. From the age of 26 (1808), Foscolo had frequent episodes of cough and dyspnea that progressively worsened. Four acute respiratory exacerbations occurred in 1812. Between September 1812 and April 1813, he had breathlessness as that of asthma. Frail and ailing, he developed a chronic liver disease in 1826. In August 1827, weakness, dyspepsia and drowsiness further increased and dropsy became manifest. He went into coma on September 7, 1827 and died aged 49 three days later. Based on a brief history of urethritis and urinary obstructions (1811-1812), previous scholars have suggested that Foscolo had urethral stenosis that caused a chronic bladder outlet obstruction and led to consequent renal failure. This hypothesis, however, does not mention the respiratory symptomatology present since 1804, which is a pivotal feature of Foscolo's illness. We surmise that Foscolo suffered from alpha-1 anti trypsin (AAT) deficiency, a rare genetic disease, which caused his premature death and support our interpretation with documental evidence. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.]
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Biomedical Sciences > Microbiology & Infection Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School |
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| SWORD Depositor: | Library Publications Router | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Medical Hypotheses | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Churchill Livingstone | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 0306-9877 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | February 2018 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 111 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 1-3 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.mehy.2017.12.014 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | ** From PubMed via Jisc Publications Router. ** History: received 23-11-2017; accepted 08-12-2017. | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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