Hulusi Behçet
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Hulusi Behçet | |
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Born | Hulusi Behçet 20 February 1889 Konstantiniyye, Ottoman Empire |
Died | 8 March 1948 | (aged 59)
Occupation(s) | Physician, scientist |
Website | www.hulusibehcet.net |
Hulusi Behçet (Ottoman Turkish: خلوصی بهجت), (English:
Early life
Born to Turkish parents, as his father was an official in the Ottoman Empire, they emigrated to Damascus and he spent his early childhood there after he lost his mother to an illness.[1]
Professional works
During World War I (1914–1918), he served at the military hospital in Edirne as a specialist in dermatology and venereal diseases and was assigned to the head of the hospital as an assistant.[1] After the war, between 1918 and 1919, he first went to Budapest, Hungary and then to Berlin, Germany to improve his medical knowledge. He had the opportunity to meet some well known colleagues there. After his return to Turkey, he went into private practice. In 1923, Behçet was appointed as the head physician at the Hasköy Venereal Diseases Hospital at Golden Horn in Istanbul. Shortly after, he moved to Guraba Hospital, which is now part of the School of Medicine Bezmialem University. While he lectured at the university, he continued his private practice as well.[3]
In 1923, he married Refika Davaz, the daughter of a well-known diplomat. They had one daughter.[3]
Scientific works
In 1933, Istanbul University was re-established out of the old-fashioned Dar-ul Fünun. During this period of reform, Behçet founded the department of dermatology and venereal diseases. His curiosity for research, writing and discussion were his intellectual characteristics. Starting from the early years in his profession, his participation in national and international congresses with original articles was very apparent, publishing many articles at home and abroad. The famous
He was interested in
Behçet's disease
His first observations on
In 1930, a woman suffering from irritation in her eye and with
Following those two patients, in 1936 a male patient from a dental clinic with oral wounds, acneiform signs on the back, scrotal ulcer, eye irritation, evening fever, and abdominal pain was sent to his clinic. After the consultation, nothing except a dental cyst was found. Behçet thought the recurrent symptoms might be due to a virus. He referred the patient to Braun, who did a viral investigation and found some corpuscular structures.[3][1]
Behçet, with the symptoms of these three patients whom he had followed for years, then decided that they were the symptoms of a new disease and in 1936, he described the situation in a meeting and this was published in the Archives of Dermatology and Venereal Disease. He wrote in 1937 his ideas in the "Dermatologische Wochenschrift" and the same year he presented it at the meeting of the Dermatology Association of Paris. At this meeting, he declared that a dental infection might cause the etiology of the disease. In 1938, he published his ideas about the subject in the "Dermatologische Wochenschrift" in a more detailed form. In the same year, Niyazi Gözcü and Frank reported two new cases with the same symptoms. The Belgian scientists Weekers and Reginster, and the Italian Frachescetti reported some patients with similar symptoms. Therefore, European doctors had accepted the appearance of a new disease.[1]
Ophthalmologists had begun to accept "Behçet's Disease", but dermatologists kept denying the new disease, insisting they could be symptoms of known diseases. While that debate was taking place, some new cases were reported from Belgium, Austria, the U.S., Japan, Denmark and Switzerland. When they had been published, the whole world finally came to accept that they were confronted with a new disease. In 1947, at the suggestion of Mischner of the Zurich Medical Faculty during the International Medical Congress of Geneva, the finding of Behçet was named "Morbus Behçet". Though it was evaluated in the early days as "Behçet's Syndrome", "Trisymptom Behçet", and "Morbus Behçet", today the disease is universally called ‘’’Behçet's Disease’’’ in medical literature. Behçet published 126 national and international articles between 1921 and 1940. 53 of those appeared in prestigious European scientific journals.[3]
Personal life
Behçet was deeply interested in the arts, particularly literature. Generally, he was a nervous man and suffered from
Commemoration
In 1975, 27 years after his death, he was honoured with the TÜBİTAK Scientific Award. Several classes, laboratories and libraries had been named in his honour. In national and international congresses, events like "Korean-Turkish Behçet Days" are taking place. In 1980, on the initiative of one of his students, a postal stamp was issued in his commemoration, about which an article was published in the Journal of the American Dental Association. His biography was published in the Journal of Philatelic Society and in the Medical Bulletin of the United States Army, Europe’’ and ’’Seventh Army's Medical Bulletin.[3]
In 1982, he was awarded with the Medical Award of the Turkish Republic by Eczacıbaşı Foundation of Scientific Research. In 1996, the Turkish mint released a silver commemorative coin for Behçet during the National Dermatology Congress.[3]
References
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (April 2009) |
External links
- Hulusi Behçet's Biography page (in English and Turkish)