Nikolaus Friedreich

Nikolaus Friedreich (1825-1882) was a German pathologist and neurologist, and a third generation physician in the Friedreich family. His father was pathologist Johann Baptist Friedreich (1796-1862), and his grandfather was pathologist Nicolaus Anton Friedreich (1761-1836), who is remembered for his early description of idiopathic facial paralysis, which would later be known as Bell's palsy.

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In the early part of his career he studied and practiced medicine in Würzburg under the tutelage of noted anatomists such as Albert von Kölliker and Rudolf Virchow. Later Friedreich became professor of pathological anatomy at Würzburg. In 1858, he became professor of pathology and therapy at Heidelberg, where he remained for the rest of his career.

Friedreich was involved in the establishment of pathological correlations, notably in the field of muscular dystrophy, spinal ataxia and brain tumors. He created over fifty treatises and monographs involving diseases concerning all parts of the anatomy. Some of his better known students and assistants included Adolf Kussmaul, Wilhelm Heinrich Erb and Friedrich Schultze.

He is primarily known today for Friedreich's ataxia, which he identified in 1863. It is a degenerative disease with sclerosis of the spinal cord which affects a person's speech, balance and coordination.

There are several other medical terms and diseases associated with Friedreich, such as:

• Friedreich's disease or Friedreich's syndrome, (paramyoclonus multiplex): a brief, sudden muscular contraction in the proximal muscles of the extremities.
• Friedreich's foot or pes cavus: abnormally high arches in the feet.
• Friedreich's sign: collapse of cervical veins that were previously distended during diastole (heart relaxation}, and is caused by an adherent pericardium.
• Friedreich's sound change: term for difference in tension (pitch of percussion note) in the cavum wall during expiration and inspiration.
• Friedreich-Auerbach disease: hypertrophy of the tongue, ears and facial features. Named with anatomist Leopold Auerbach.
• Friedreich-Erb-Arnold syndrome: An osteodermopathic syndrome characterized by a corrugated overgrowth of the scalp (bull-dog scalp or cutis verticis gyrata), facial hypertrophy, clubbed digits due to soft tissue hyperplasia, enlarged hands and feet and elephantiasis. Named with Doctors Wilhelm Erb and Julius Arnold.

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