Description of Tay-Sachs disease
Descripción de la enfermedad de Tay-Sachs
- Date
- 1881-1887 · confidence high
- Place
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Waren Tay and Bernard Sachs
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
British ophthalmologist Waren Tay described in 1881 the characteristic cherry-red spot on the retina of affected infants. Six years later, in New York, neurologist Bernard Sachs described the disease's cellular changes and recognized its hereditary basis, coining the term 'amaurotic familial idiocy'.
What it led to
- Recognition of the disease's hereditary basis (Sachs, 1887, New York)
- Differential diagnostic criteria against other similar neurological disorders