[Plaut-Vincent's angina]
The clinical appearance of fuso-spirillar infection in patients with a serious impairment of the immunitary system was the starting-point for a historical study. At the end of nineteenth century two european researchers clarified the cause of many infections. Association of a spindle-shaped bacillus with a spirillar one was shown to cause several pathologies: necrotic ulcerous stomatitis, pseudomembranous angina, hepatic abscess, otitis, pneumonia, etc. The identification of such bacteria contributed to improving further differential diagnosis with diphteria
Pistacchio
E.
E
Cattedra di Storia della Medicina, Dipartimento di Sanita Pubblica, Universita degli Studi di Bologna, Italy.