title: The mystery of the Doctor's son, or the riddle of West syndrome.
abstract: Although the eponym "West syndrome" is used widely for infantile spasms, the originators of the term and the time frame of its initial use are not well known. This article provides historical details about Dr. West, about his son who had infantile spasms, and about the circumstances leading to the coining of the term West syndrome.
authors.affiliation: Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information, University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. eling@nici.kun.nl
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Eling
authors.forename: Willy O
authors.initials: WO
authors.lastname: Renier
authors.forename: Joern
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pomper
authors.forename: Tallie Z
authors.initials: TZ
authors.lastname: Baram
mesh_terms: D004850:Eponyms; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D013036:Spasms, Infantile / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000266:history*; D006113:United Kingdom