Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. It was characterized by swelling, the presence of albumin in the urine and was frequently accompanied by high blood pressure and heart disease.
Video Bright's disease
Signs and symptoms
The symptoms and signs of Bright's disease were first described in 1827 by the English physician Richard Bright, after whom the disease was named. In his Reports of Medical Cases, he described 25 cases of dropsy (edema) which he attributed to kidney disease. Symptoms and signs included: inflammation of serous membranes, hemorrhages, apoplexy, convulsions, blindness and coma. Many of these cases were found to have albumin in their urine (detected by the spoon and candle-heat coagulation), and showed striking morbid changes of the kidneys at autopsy. The triad of dropsy, albumin in the urine and kidney disease came to be regarded as characteristic of Bright's disease. Subsequent work by Bright and others indicated an association with cardiac hypertrophy, which was attributed by Bright to stimulation of the heart. Subsequent work by Frederick Akbar Mahomed showed that a rise in blood pressure could precede the appearance of albumin in the urine, and the rise in blood pressure and increased resistance to flow was believed to explain the cardiac hypertrophy.
It is now known that Bright's disease is due to a wide range of diverse kidney diseases; thus, the term Bright's disease is retained strictly for historical application. The disease was diagnosed frequently in patients with diabetes; at least some of these cases would probably correspond to a modern diagnosis of diabetic nephropathy.
Maps Bright's disease
Treatment
Bright's disease was historically treated with warm baths, blood-letting, squill, digitalis, mercuric compounds, opium, diuretics, laxatives, and dietary therapy, including abstinence from alcoholic drinks, cheese and red meat. Arnold Ehret was diagnosed with Bright's disease and pronounced incurable by 24 of Europe's most respected doctors; he designed The Mucusless Diet Healing System, which apparently cured his illness. William Howard Hay, MD had the illness and, it is claimed, cured himself using the Hay diet.
Historical accounts
Legendary Old West lawman Bass Reeves' death was attributed to this disease.
British civil engineers Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Robert Stephenson died of Bright's disease on 20 September 1859, and 12 October 1859, respectively.
Frederick William Faber died of Bright's disease on 26 September 1863.
George-Étienne Cartier, Founding Father of the Confederation of Canada, also died of this disease on 20 May 1873.
Rowland Hussey Macy Sr., an American businessman and founder of the department store chain R.H. Macy and Company died on March 29, 1877 in Paris of Bright's disease.
The famous dwarf Commodore Nutt died in New York because of this disease on May 25, 1881.
The Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt's sister Lydia died of Bright's disease in 1882.
Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, first wife of Theodore Roosevelt, died of Bright's disease on 14 February 1884.
American tennis pioneer Mary Ewing Outerbridge died of Bright's disease, at the age of 34, on May 3, 1886.
The poet Emily Dickinson died of this disease, May 15, 1886.
Chester Alan Arthur, 21st President of the United States, died of this disease, November 18, 1886.
Swedish-American mechanical engineer John Ericsson, most famous for designing USS Monitor is mentioned of dying of this disease on March 8, 1889.
Famed gunfighter Luke Short died in September 8, 1893, because of the disease.
Union general Francis Barlow, who played an important role in the American Civil War, died of Bright's disease on January 11, 1896.
Soldier and ornithologist Charles Bendire died of Bright's disease in 1897.
Warren S. Johnson, founder of Johnson Controls died of Bright's disease on December 5, 1911, at the age of 64.
James S. Sherman served as Vice President of the United States from 1909 until his death from Bright's disease in 1912
Ellen Axson Wilson, first wife of Woodrow Wilson, died of Bright's disease on 6 August 1914.
Woodsman Louis "French Louie" Seymour died of this disease on February 28, 1915.
John Bunny, an American actor and one of the first comic stars of the early motion picture era, died of the disease on April 26, 1915.
Legendary Australian cricketer Victor Trumper died of the disease, at the age of 37, in June 1915.
Charles Sumner Sedgwick, a prominent architect based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, died of Bright's disease in 1922.
Baseball Hall of Famer Ross Youngs died of Bright's Disease on October 22, 1927.
Master of Science Fiction Horror, Howard Phillips "H. P." Lovecraft, died from a combination of cancer and Bright's Disease on March 15, 1937, at the age of 46.
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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