Pierre Potain

Pierre Charles Édouard Potain (July 19, 1825 - January 5, 1901) was a French cardiologist born in Paris.

In 1853 he earned his doctorate from the University of Paris, and afterwards worked as an assistant to Jules Baillarger (1809-1890) at the mental asylum at Ivry. In 1856 he began work in the clinic of Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud (1796-1881), whom Potain regarded as a major influence to his career. Afterwards he worked in various hospitals in Paris, including the Sainte-Antoine and Hôpital Necker, and in 1861 was appointed Médecin des hôpitaux. From 1882 to 1900 he worked at the Hôpital de la Charité.

Potain made several contributions in his research of cardiovascular disease, and conducted various tests in the field of cardiology. These tests included analysis of jugular venous waves, heart gallop rhythm research, blood pressure testing and auscultatory analysis. In 1889 he was credited for making modifications to the sphygmomanometer, a device used to measure blood pressure that had been recently invented by Samuel Siegfried Carl von Basch (1837-1905).

The term "Potain's sign" is an extension of percussion dullness over the aortic arch from the manubrium to the third costal cartilage on the right-hand side of the body. Potain's name is associated with several other eponymous medical terms; the following terms are rarely used today and are for historical purposes only.

• Potain's disease: pulmonary edema
• Potain's solution: diluent used in a procedure to count red blood cells
• Potain's syndrome: dyspepsia with expansion of the right ventricle, and an increase of pulmonary auscultation.

Written works

• Des lésions des ganglions lymphatiques viscéraux. Paris, Remquet, 1860.
• De la Succession des mouvements du coeur, réfutation des opinions de M. Beau, leçon faite à l'Hôtel-Dieu. Paris: impr. de H. Plon, 1863
• Note sur les dédoublements normaux des bruits du coeur, présentée à la Société médicale des hôpitaux, dans la séance du 22 juin 1866, par le Dr Potain,. Paris: impr. de F. Malteste, 1866.
• Des mouvements et des bruits qui se passent dans les veines jugulaires. Bull. Soc. Méd. Hôp. Paris (Mémoires), 1867, 2 sér., 4, 3-27.
• Du Rhythme cardiaque appelé bruit de galop, de son mécanisme et de sa valeur séméiologique, note présentée à la Société médicale des hôpitaux de Paris Paris: A. Delahaye, 1876. También en : Bull. Soc. Méd. Hôp. Paris (Mémoires), (1875), 1876, 12, 137-66.
• Des Fluxions pleuro-pulmonaires réflexes d'origine utéro-ovarienne. Paris: impr. de Chaix, 1884.
• Du sphygmomanomètre et de la mesure de la pression artérielle chez l'homme à l'état normale et pathologique. Arch. Physiol. Nom. Path., 5 sér., 1, 556-69.
• Dernière leçon de M. le professeur Potain. Paris: impr. de J. Gainche, 1900.*
• La Pression artérielle de l'homme à l'état normal et pathologique Paris: Masson, 1902.

References

• Parts of this article are based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.
• Google-translated article from Historiadelamedicina.org

See also

• Obituary of Pierre Potain in the British Medical Journal 12 Jan 1901