T.L. Bunina, Asao Hirano, and the post mortem cellular diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Abstract

Tat'yana Bunina, a Russian neuropathologist, has been immortalized because she discovered a neuronal inclusion and it was named after her. She first recognized these structures in familial ALS and in experiments designed to transmit the disease to primates. Her observations were recorded in a Russian language journal and were brought to the attention of Western neurologists by Professor Asao Hirano of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Hospital in New York City; he also found the same structures in patients with sporadic, familial, or Guamanian ALS. Subsequently, the inclusion bodies proved to have high sensitivity and specificity for the cellular diagnosis of ALS in post mortem examination; Bunina bodies and ubiquitinated inclusions have almost equal diagnostic value. In later experiments, most attempts to transmit ALS failed, but a few succeeded.

• Bunina
• Asao Hirano
• amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• neuronal inclusion bodies
• post mortem examination
• medical history