RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Tracing Sydenham’s chorea: historical documents from a British paediatric hospital
JF Archives of Disease in Childhood
JO Arch Dis Child
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
SP 507
OP 511
DO 10.1136/adc.2004.057679
VO 90
IS 5
A1 D Martino
A1 A Tanner
A1 G Defazio
A1 A J Church
A1 K P Bhatia
A1 G Giovannoni
A1 R C Dale
YR 2005
UL http://adc.bmj.com/content/90/5/507.abstract
AB Sydenham’s chorea (SC) became a well defined nosological entity only during the second half of the nineteenth century. Such progress was promoted by the availability of large clinical series provided by newly founded paediatric hospitals. This paper analyses the demographic and clinical features of patients with chorea admitted to the first British paediatric hospital (the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London) between 1852 and 1936. The seasonal and demographic characteristics of SC during this time appear strikingly similar to those observed today, and witness the introduction of modern “statistically averaging” techniques in the approach to complex paediatric syndromes. Great Ormond Street (GOS) hospital case notes provide detailed descriptions of the “typical cases” of SC, and show that British physicians working in the early age of paediatric hospitals succeeded in recognising the most distinctive clinical features of this fascinating condition.