Historical aspects on the development of angiology in Germany.
Clinical angiology is mainly concerned with vessels and disorders of circulation which can be detected and appraised with clinical methods. The arteries and veins of the limbs as well as the major extracranial arteries supplying the brain are primarily involved. The consequences of a peripheral arterial disease were initially recognized as being due to disorders of blood flow only in their most severe forms. A certain correlation of organic arterial alterations with the clinical finding was first made possible by angiography. Initially, both surgeons and internists directed their attention to this new field. However, since only surgery could offer therapeutic measures promising success, angiology could not become established in internal medicine. Deviating from this general development, Ratschow in Germany and in German-speaking countries and regions was able to create the precondition for an internal medical angiology and to attract the clinical and scientific interest of young internists in this field. The development of modern angiology, which began in the 1950s with the introduction of reconstructive arterial operations hence encountered surgical and internal medical activities in German-speaking countries. In parallel with the improvement in the methods of surgery, the internist angiologists developed thrombolysis and catheter recanalization (angioplasty) into efficient methods of treatment. In addition, the purely conservative techniques of therapy (training, vasoactive substances, rheological methods, medical prophylaxis) as well as noninvasive diagnostics were improved. The ideal concept which is aspired to at present and which has already been put into practice in many places consists in constructive collaboration of internal medical angiology and reconstructive vascular surgery, if possible with the assistance of vessel-oriented radiology.
D005858:Germany; D006666:History of Medicine; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D013038:Specialization; D014652:Vascular Diseases / Q000266:history*