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Jean George Bachmann
(1877 – 1959)
French physician–physiologist whose experimental work in the early twentieth century provided the first clear functional description of a preferential interatrial conduction pathway. This structure, eponymically named “Bachmann’s bundle”, plays a central role in normal atrial activation and in the pathophysiology of interatrial block and atrial arrhythmias.
As a young man, Bachmann served as a merchant sailor, crossing the Atlantic multiple times. He emigrated to the United States in 1902 and earned his medical degree at the top of his class from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1907. He stayed at this Medical College as a demonstrator and physiologist. In 1910, he joined Emory University in Atlanta. Between 1917 -1918 he served as a medical officer in the US Army. He retired from Emory in 1947 and continued his private medical practice until his death in 1959.
On the personal side, Bachmann was a man of many talents: a polyglot, he was fluent in German, French, Spanish and English. He was a chef in his own right and occasionally worked as a chef in international hotels. In fact, he paid his tuition at Jefferson Medical College, working both as a chef and as a language tutor.
The intrinsic cardiac conduction system was a major focus of cardiovascular research in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The atrioventricular (AV) node was discovered and described by Sunao Tawara and Karl Albert Aschoff in 1906, and the sinoatrial node by Arthur Keith and Martin Flack in 1907.
While the connections that distribute the electrical impulse from the AV node to the ventricles were known through the works of Wilhelm His Jr, in 1893 and Jan Evangelista Purkinje in 1839, the mechanism by which electrical impulses spread between the atria remained uncertain.
In 1916 Bachmann published a paper titled “The Inter-Auricular Time Interval” in the American Journal of Physiology. Bachmann measured activation times between the right and left atria and demonstrated that interruption of a distinct anterior interatrial muscular band resulted in delayed left atrial activation. He concluded that this band constituted the principal route for rapid interatrial conduction.
Subsequent anatomical and electrophysiological studies confirmed the importance of the structure described by Bachmann, which came to bear his name. Bachmann’s bundle is now recognized as a key determinant of atrial activation patterns, and its dysfunction is associated with interatrial block, atrial fibrillation, and abnormal P-wave morphology. His work remains foundational in both basic cardiac anatomy and clinical electrophysiology.
Sources and references
1. Bachmann G. “The inter-auricular time interval”. Am J Physiol. 1916;41:309–320.
2. Hurst JW. “Profiles in Cardiology: Jean George Bachmann (1877–1959)”. Clin Cardiol. 1987;10:185–187.
3. Lemery R, Guiraudon G, Veinot JP. “Anatomic description of Bachmann’s bundle and its relation to the atrial septum”. Am J Cardiol. 2003;91:148–152.
4. "Remembering the canonical discoverers of the core components of the mammalian cardiac conduction system: Keith and Flack, Aschoff and Tawara, His, and Purkinje" Icilio Cavero and Henry Holzgrefe Advances in Physiology Education 2022 46:4, 549-579.
5. Knol WG, de Vos CB, Crijns HJGM, et al. “The Bachmann bundle and interatrial conduction” Heart Rhythm. 2019;16:127–133.
6. “Iatrogenic biatrial flutter. The role of the Bachmann’s bundle” Constán E.; García F., Linde, A.. Complejo Hospitalario de Jaén, Jaén. Spain
7. Keith A, Flack M. The form and nature of the muscular connections between the primary divisions of the vertebrate heart. J Anat Physiol 41: 172–189, 1907.
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Corona mortis (A)
Important for inguinal hernia anatomy and surgery, this term is Latin from [corona] meaning "crown' and [mortis] meaning "death'; the "crown or circle of death". The corona mortis (blue arrow) refers to an anatomical variation1, a vascular anastomosis between the obturator and the external iliac vascular systems that passes over Cooper's pectineal ligament and posterior to the lacunar (Gimbernat's) ligament.
In some cases, the corona mortis is the actual obturator artery that arises from the inferior epigastric artery instead of the internal iliac artery. It can also arise from the external iliac artery. In both cases, it has been called an "aberrant obturator artery". This could be a misnomer, as this anatomical variation can be present in up to 25% of the cases. When present, the corona mortis can be injured when a surgeon looks to enlarge the femoral ring by opening the lacunar ligament from the anterior aspect. In this approach the "corona mortis" is not visible, as it is found immediately posterior to the lacunar ligament. This vascular structure could even be endangered in a laparoscopic procedure for inguinal of femoral hernia repair and a staple or tack is driven blindly into the pectineal (Cooper's) ligament.
Berberoglu states that "although these tiny anastomoses... have been described in classical anatomy textbooks, these texts neglect to mention that theses anastomoses can be life-threatening".
In some rare cases, the corona mortis (aberrant obturator artery) coexists with the normal obturator artery. Although called a [corona], this anatomical structure is an incomplete circle. In the image, the [corona mortis] is labeled "A".
Sources:
1. Rusu et al: "Anatomical considerations on the corona mortis" Surg Radiol Anat (2010) 32:17–24
2. Berberoglu et al: "An anatomic study in seven cadavers and an endoscopic study in 28 patients" Surg Endosc (2001) 15:72-75
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UPDATED: The word [catamenial] is Greek. The prefix [cata-] arises from [, from [κάτω] (kato) meaning "down", "down because of", or "down to", the root term )[-men-] from [μήνας] (menas) meaning "month", referring to "lunar month" or to a female's menstrual cycle, which is usually just about a lunar month long, and the adjectival suffix [-ial] means "pertaining to".
[Catamenial] then means "to be down (sick) during a menstrual cycle" and refers to a condition that recurs in reference to menses.
Examples of the use of this word are:
• Catamenial depression or catamenial psychosis
• Catamenial pneumothorax - related to endometriosis
• Catamenial epilepsy or seizures
The links will open scholarly articles that use this word.
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The root term [-asthen-] originates from the Greek word [ασθενεσ] (asthenes), meaning “weak” or “feeble”. It can be used with the adjectival suffixes [-ic] or [-ia], both meaning “pertaining to” to form the medical words [asthenic] and [asthenia], meaning “weak” and “weakness”.
It is also found in other medical words such as:
- Myasthenia: The root term [-my-] means “muscle”. Weak muscles
- Neurasthenia: The root term [-neur-] means “nerve”. Initially used to denote an actual weak nerve, it has evolved today to mean someone with a “weak nerves condition”, with fatigue, headaches or migraines, and sometimes depression.
- Angiasthenia or angioasthenia: Both are correct. The root term [-angi-] means “vessel”. The terms refer to a weak condition of the cardiovascular system.
- Asthenophobia: Fear of being weak
Personal note: There was a time in the 1800’s when the term [asthenic] was used to refer to a person as a “weakling”.
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The root term [-pyr] originates from the Greek [πυροσ] (pyros) meaning “fire”. In medical terminology it is used in reference to high temperature or “fever” as in the following terms:
- Antipyretic: The prefix [anti-] means “against”. A medicine that reduces fever
- Apyretic: No fever
- Pyrexia: Condition of fever. Fever
- Pyretic: That which can cause fever
- Pyrogenic: The suffix [-(o)genic] means “generation” or “cause”. Something that can generate fever
- Pyrolytic: The suffix [-(o)lytic] means “destruction” or “dissolution”. Something that destroys or stops fever
- Pyromaniac: An individual obsessed by fire
The term can also be found in vernacular English is words such as:
- Pyrotechnics: Fireworks
- Pyromancy: The art of divination by the observation of fire
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The [internal thoracic artery] is a bilateral artery of the thorax and is known to many as the [internal mammary artery], although this is not its proper anatomical name.
The internal thoracic artery is the first branch to arise off the subclavian artery. It descends inferiorly in a parasternal position, on the posterior aspect of the anterior thoracic cage. It is in contact with the ribs and as it descends it is covered posteriorly by the transversus thoracis muscle.
At the level of the sixth costal cartilage the internal thoracic artery gives off the musculophrenic artery and changes its name, continuing inferiorly as the superior epigastric artery. This artery will pass through one of the hiatuses of the respiratory diaphragm and in turn will become the inferior or deep epigastric artery at the level of the umbilicus. The deep epigastric artery (one of the boundaries of Hesselbach's triangle) will in turn open into the external iliac artery. The internal thoracic artery is part of a longitudinal collateral circulation arterial channel that parallels the aorta.
The internal thoracic artery will give off several branches. The first one is usually the pericardiacophrenic artery, a long artery that descends with the phrenic nerve alongside the parietal pericardium providing blood supply, as its name implies, to the pericardium and the phrenic nerve. Other branches are the anterior intercostal arteries, which communicate with the posterior intercostal arteries and the aorta.
The internal thoracic artery also gives arterial branches to the sternum and provides superficial, perforating branches to the medial side of the breast, hence its clinical name, the internal mammary artery.
The internal thoracic artery can be used to create a cardiac graft when performing a Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG). Because of the two names used to denote this artery, surgeons will refer to the procedure either as a ITA (internal thoracic artery) or an IMA (internal mammary artery) CABG.
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The word [ramus] is Latin and means “branch”. The plural form for [ramus] is [rami]. This word is used to denote “branches” or “divisions” in anatomical structures such as:
• Dorsal and ventral rami: the posterior (dorsal) and anterior (ventral) branches or divisions of a spinal nerve.
• Rami communicantes: small nerve connections between the spinal nerve and the sympathetic chain. These tiny nerve branches are part of the autonomic nervous system. Some are present at all levels of the spinal cord (gray rami communicans) and some only at levels T1 through L2 (white rami communicans)
• Pubic rami: the superior and inferior lateral extensions of the pubic bone, which form the superior and inferior boundaries of the obturator foramen (see image)
Image property of:CAA.Inc.Artist:M. Zuptich