Acromegaly and gigantism in the medical literature. Case descriptions in the era before and the early years after the initial publication of Pierre Marie (1886)

In 1886 Pierre Marie used the term “acromegaly” for the first time and gave a full description of the characteristic clinical picture. However several others had already given clear clinical descriptions before him and sometimes had given the disease other names. After 1886, it gradually became clear that pituitary enlargement (caused by a pituitary adenoma) was the cause and not the consequence of acromegaly, as initially thought. Pituitary adenomas could be found in the great majority of cases. It also became clear that acromegaly and gigantism were the same disease but occurring at different stages of life and not different diseases as initially thought. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century most information was derived from case descriptions and post-mortem examinations of patients with acromegaly or (famous) patients with gigantism. The stage was set for further research into the pathogenesis, diagnosis and therapy of acromegaly and gigantism

Overgrown Individuals in Greek Mythology

In Greek mythology, body measurements and growth rate are given for some overgrown individuals, semigods, sons of gods and mortals, allowing for the proposition of a diagnosis. The Aloads “grew every year a cubit in breadth and a fathom in height”; and “at nine years they were nine cubits in breadth and in height nine fathoms.” Orion was “huge”, “of gigantic stature”. Tityos was “of monstrous size”; “. lying on the ground. Over nine plethra he stretched. ”, but this verse “refers, not to the size of Tityos, but to the place where he lay, the name of which was Nine Roods (Nine Plethra)”. Calculations in meters give for the Aloads a height of 16.47 m and a breadth of 4.11 m. Orion should be taller, since the Aloads were “the tallest,. after famous Orion.” Homer gave a 274.50 m stretched height of Tityos, but Pausanias less than 19.4 m. These could be interpreted as constitutionally tall statured individuals, since they were sons of gods. The growth rate of the Aloads, however, resembles that of gigantism. © 2005, by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. All rights reserved