Helene Ollendorff Curth

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Helene Ollendorff Curth
Breslau
, German Empire
Died17 June 1982(1982-06-17) (aged 83)
NationalityAmerican
OccupationPhysician
Known for
Parent
Academic background
Education
Alma materUniversity of Breslau
Thesis (1924)
Doctoral advisorJosef Jadassohn
Other advisorsAbraham Buschke
Academic work
DisciplineDermatology
Sub-disciplineGenodermatosis
Institutions
Main interestsAcanthosis nigricans
Notable ideasSkin signs associated with internal cancer
InfluencedRobert J. Gorlin

Helene Ollendorff Curth (28 February 1899 – 17 June 1982) was a

secondary syphilis, known as the Ollendorff sign, and one form of measuring clubbed fingers
, known as the Curth's angle, are named after her.

Ollendorff Curth completed her early training under

Madge Thurlow Macklin
.

Early life and education

Helene Ollendorff Curth, affectionately referred to as "Lene", was born on 28 February 1899, into a Jewish family in

Wroclaw, Poland, then Breslau, Germany.[1][2] Her father Isodor Ollendorf, was a lawyer and counsillor who died in 1911, and her mother Paula spent much of her life working to improve women's rights.[3] The youngest of four siblings, her sister and one brother died young.[3] She attended the universities of Freiburg and Munich.[2]

Early career

Ollendorff Curth completed her early medical training under

patch testing, at the University of Breslau.[4][5] Together they investigated the sensitivity of secondary syphilitic lesions.[4] She described their findings in her doctoral thesis, for which she was awarded top class honours.[6] Known as the Ollendorff probe sign or Ollendorff sign, the phenomenon referred to deep pain when a syphilitic bump was gently prodded, and was used to help distinguish the lesions of secondary syphilis from similarly looking non-syphilitic ones.[4][6][a]

Subsequently, in 1924, she moved to Berlin to train in dermatology at the

bumps in the skin, sometimes associated with bone involvement.[6][10][b]

During her time in Berlin, she conducted her early studies on the skin sign acanthosis nigricans (AN).[6]

Later career

In 1931, after witnessing the removal of Jewish looking people by men in uniform, Ollendorff Curth, her husband and child moved to New York City, where they anglicized their names; she removed the final e from Helene and became Helen, and he became William.[2][4][c] There, they established a private dermatology practice and worked alongside Columbia University.[6]

Her two papers in 1946 contain the first description of cases of Behçet's disease in New York, following which this eponymous term became popular.[12] She described the "triple symptom complex" of ulcers of the mouth and genitals (genital ulcer and mouth ulcer), and eye inflammation leading to hypopyonas, as described by Hulusi Behçet in 1937.[13] Medical professionals have debated whether the disease name should include Benediktos Adamantiades.[12][13] Ollendorff Curth did not use his name in her title but cites him.[12][13]

She wrote on diseases that resulted from

Madge Thurlow Macklin, she gave the first description of a rare type of ichthyosis hystrix.[2] The condition presents with thick warty skin, horn-like skin of palms and soles, and scales.[2] She is named for Curth's angle, one form of assessing clubbed fingers, which she published in 1961 in a description of a familial case.[15] In New York she introduced patch testing for industrial employees.[5] At the invitation of Heinrich Adolf Gottron and Urs Walter Schnyder [de], she contributed a chapter to Jadassohn's Handbook of Skin and Venereal Diseases (1966).[11][16]

Cutaneous paraneoplastic syndromes

Ollendorff Curth was first to establish a set of criteria required to suspect a cancer when new

markers for internal cancers.[6][17] One such skin sign, AN, became a regular topic of her publications.[4] Her definitions and classifications of AN helped to distinguish types associated with cancer (malignant acanthosis nigricans) from benign types with no link to cancer.[19][20] In 1968 she categorized acanthosis nigricans into four types: malignant, benign, syndromic, and pseudo types.[20][21] It has since been reclassified by several others.[20] Robert J. Gorlin noted her work in this area to have been a significant influence on him.[22][23]

Death

Ollendorff Curth died on 17 June 1982, from Alzheimer's disease.[2]

Selected publications

  • "Ein Fall von Dermatofibrosis lenticularis disseminata und Osteopathia condensans disseminata". Dermatologische Wochenschrift, Hamburg, 1928, 86: 257–262. (Co-author)
  • Curth, Helen Ollendorff (1 October 1934). "Dermatofibrosis lenticularis disseminata and osteopoikilosis". Archives of Dermatology. 30 (4): 552.
    doi:10.1001/archderm.1934.01460160066009
    .
  • "Benign type of acanthosis nigricans: etiology". Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology. 34 (3): 353–366. 1 September 1936.
    ISSN 0096-6029
    .
  • Curth, Helen Ollendorff (August 1946). "Recurrent genito-oral aphthosis and uveitis with hypopyon (Behcet's syndrome)". Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology. 54 (2): 179–196.
    PMID 20995035
    .
  • CURTH HO (October 1946). "Behçet's syndrome, abortive form (?); recurrent aphthous oral lesions and recurrent genital ulcerations". Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology. 54: 481–484.
    PMID 21065219
    .
  • Curth, Helen Ollendorff (1 February 1948). "Acanthosis nigricans and its association with cancer". Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology. 57 (2): 158–170.
    PMID 18912474
    .
  • Curth, Helen Ollendorff; FIRSCHEIN IL; ALPERT M (1 May 1961). "Familial Clubbed Fingers". Archives of Dermatology. 83 (5): 828–836.
    PMID 13718935
    . (Co-author)

Notes

  1. ^ Some publications refer to the sign as the Buschke-Ollendorf sign.[7] However, she described the sign with Jadassohn before going to work with Buschke and the Curths in a memoir to Buschke in 1983 clarify themselves that the sign is called Ollendorffs sign.[8]
  2. ^ Source "Burgdorf (2004)" contains a correction.[11]
  3. ^ Buschke remained and died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1943.[4]

References

  1. ^ "Collection: Helen Ollendorff Curth Collection | The Center for Jewish History ArchivesSpace". archives.cjh.org. Archived from the original on 6 August 2023. Retrieved 29 July 2023.
  2. ^
    doi:10.2174/1874372201105010028
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-3-86649-715-3
    .
  4. ^
    doi:10.1111/bjd.12981
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4471-4585-1
    .
  6. ^
    PMID 28492020
    .
  7. ISBN 978-0-323-54753-6
    .
  8. PMID 6344683
    .
  9. ISBN 978-1-119-14280-5
    .
  10. PMID 15243529
    .
  11. ^
    doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2004.08.006
    .
  12. ^
    ISBN 0-306-48382-3
    .
  13. ^
    PMID 17317323
    .
  14. PMID 16881962
    .
  15. ISBN 978-0-470-69483-1
    .
  16. ISBN 978-3-662-27154-4
    .
  17. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4614-0687-7
    .
  18. ISBN 978-3-211-99225-8
    .
  19. ISBN 978-3-662-00181-3
    .
  20. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4051-2034-0
    .
  21. ISBN 978-0-7020-5182-1
    .
  22. PMID 15545751
    .
  23. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69593-7
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Helene_Ollendorff_Curth&oldid=1218882650"