Willem Karel Dicke

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Willem Karel Dicke (born February 15, 1905 in Dordrecht , † April 27, 1962 in Dordrecht) was a Dutch pediatrician . He is considered the discoverer of the cause of celiac disease and its treatment through a gluten-free diet.

Life

From 1922 to 1929, Dicke studied medicine at the University of Leiden . He then specialized in pediatrics at Juliana Kinderziekenhuis in The Hague , where he became medical director in 1936. In 1957 he became professor of paediatrics at the University of Utrecht and medical director of the Wilhelmina Kinderziekenhuis in Utrecht. He died in 1962 at the age of 57 as a result of severe cerebrovascular disease.

According to his wife, Dicke is said to have suspected the cause of celiac disease in grain products as early as 1934/1936. When the supply situation deteriorated during the Second World War and the patients at the Juliana Children's Hospital who had celiac disease (then known as Gee-Herter syndrome ) were barely able to get any more bread as a result, their condition improved considerably, which confirmed Dicke in his suspicion. In 1941 he published a study in which he recommended an appropriate diet.

In his dissertation from 1950 he published a clinical study in which he described the case of a boy born in 1935 and related his body growth to the phases of his stay in the clinic from 1936 onwards, during which the boy received a grain-free diet. Further studies carried out at the Children's Hospital in Utrecht confirmed the connection between the consumption of foods containing gluten (especially wheat and rye ) and the symptoms of celiac disease. The coefficient of fat absorption was used as a benchmark.

In recognition of his services, the Dutch Society for Gastroenterology ( Nederlandse Vereniging voor Gastroenterologie ) launched the Dicke Medal and awarded it to Dicke on April 26, 1957 as the first prize winner. For 6 years, Dicke was president of the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Kindergeneeskunde , member or chairman of numerous committees and from 1953 a member of the Dutch Health Council ( De Gezondheidsraad ). He was a proponent of the polio vaccination .

Works

  • Simple dietary treatment for the syndrome of Gee-Herter. In: Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd Vol. 85 (1941), pp. 1715-1716
  • Een onderzoek naar de nadelige invloed van sommige graansoorten op de lijder aan Coeliakie (dissertation Utrecht 30 May 1950)
  • Concordia res parvae crescunt (Utrecht 1957)

literature

  • GP van Berge-Henegouwen, CJ Mulder: Pioneer in the gluten free diet: Willem-Karel Dicke 1905-1962, over 50 years of gluten free diet. In: Gut Vol. 34 No. 11, pp. 1473–5, doi : 10.1136 / gut.34.11.1473 , PMC 1374403 (free full text)
  • JW Stoop: Willem Karel Dicke: 1905–1962. In: European Journal of Pediatrics Vol. 150 No. 11 (1990), p. 751, doi : 10.1007 / BF02026703
  • Dick, Willem Karel. In: Gerrit Arie Lindeboom: Dutch medical biography: a biographical dictionary of Dutch physicians and surgeons 1475-1975. Rodopi, Amsterdam 1984, sv

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the Dutch medical biography , 1908 is given as the year of birth
  2. ^ Berge-Henegouwen, Mulder: Pioneer in the gluten free diet. In: Gut Vol. 34 No. 11, p. 1473
  3. ↑ Lindeboom: Dutch medical biography , sv Dicke, Willem Karel
personal data
SURNAME Dick, Willem Karel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch pediatrician
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Dordrecht
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1962
Place of death Dordrecht