Is Lincoln Earliest Recorded Case of Rare Disease?
By David Brown
Washington Post
Abraham Lincoln was the rarest of men, and John G. Sotos believes that extended all the way to his chromosome 10.
A physician, connoisseur of rare ailments and amateur historian, Sotos believes Lincoln had a genetic syndrome called MEN 2B. He thinks the diagnosis not only accounts for Lincoln's great height, which has been the subject of most medical speculation over the years, but also for many of the president's other reported ailments and behaviors.
He also suspects Lincoln was dying of cancer at the time he was assassinated, and was unlikely to have survived a year. He thinks cancer -- an inevitable element of MEN 2B -- killed at least one of Lincoln's four sons, three of whom died before reaching age 20.
Sotos's theory assigns one of medicine's rarest conditions to one of the nation's best-known figures. It is likely to be controversial. But unlike many historical diagnoses, it can be easily proved or rejected with a DNA test for the single mutation in the gene called RET on chromosome 10 that causes MEN 2B.
Samples of the martyred president's DNA presumably exist in bloodstained fabrics scattered around the country and in eight skull fragments from Lincoln's autopsy in the possession of the federal government. Whether anyone will be willing to sacrifice part of a relic to answer this question is another issue.
Sotos, 50, is publishing his idea in a Web-based book, "The Physical Lincoln," which is expected to be available next month. He will present his findings at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on Wednesday.
"No physician ever removes doubt from his or her mind. I am prepared to be wrong, but I don't expect to be wrong," he said last week.
(Continued here.)
Washington Post
Abraham Lincoln was the rarest of men, and John G. Sotos believes that extended all the way to his chromosome 10.
A physician, connoisseur of rare ailments and amateur historian, Sotos believes Lincoln had a genetic syndrome called MEN 2B. He thinks the diagnosis not only accounts for Lincoln's great height, which has been the subject of most medical speculation over the years, but also for many of the president's other reported ailments and behaviors.
He also suspects Lincoln was dying of cancer at the time he was assassinated, and was unlikely to have survived a year. He thinks cancer -- an inevitable element of MEN 2B -- killed at least one of Lincoln's four sons, three of whom died before reaching age 20.
Sotos's theory assigns one of medicine's rarest conditions to one of the nation's best-known figures. It is likely to be controversial. But unlike many historical diagnoses, it can be easily proved or rejected with a DNA test for the single mutation in the gene called RET on chromosome 10 that causes MEN 2B.
Samples of the martyred president's DNA presumably exist in bloodstained fabrics scattered around the country and in eight skull fragments from Lincoln's autopsy in the possession of the federal government. Whether anyone will be willing to sacrifice part of a relic to answer this question is another issue.
Sotos, 50, is publishing his idea in a Web-based book, "The Physical Lincoln," which is expected to be available next month. He will present his findings at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on Wednesday.
"No physician ever removes doubt from his or her mind. I am prepared to be wrong, but I don't expect to be wrong," he said last week.
(Continued here.)
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