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Karl Theodor Fahr

Karl Theodor Fahr (October 3, 1877 - 1945) was a German pathologist who was born in Pirmasens of the Rhineland-Palatinate. In 1903 he earned his medical doctorate from the University of Giessen, and continued his studies with Eugen Bostroem (1850-1926) in Giessen, Morris Simmonds (1855-1925) in Hamburg and with Ilya Ilyich Metchnikoff (1845-1916) in Paris. In 1924, he became director of the pathological institute at University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf. Fahr is remembered for his work in nephrology and the research of kidney disorders. With internist Franz Volhard (1872-1950) he published a comprehensive monograph on Bright's disease titled Die Brightsche Nierenkrankheit. In 1923, he provided an early correlation between lung cancer (Bronchialkarzinom) and tobacco smoking. Today his name is associated with Fahr's disease, which is a degenerative neurological disorder characterized by calcifications and cell loss within the basal ganglia.

Selected writings

Die Bright’sche Nierenkrankheit: Klinik, Pathologie und Atlas. (Bright's Kidney Disease: Clinic, Pathology and Atlas); with Franz Volhard, Springer, Berlin 1914.
Die Nierengewächse. In: Friedrich Henke und Otto Lubarsch (Hrsg.): Handbuch der speziellen pathologischen Antomie und Histologie. Band 6, 1. Berlin 1925.
Zusammenhangstrennung und durch Gewaltanwendung bedingte krankhafte Veränderungen des Nierenbeckens und des Harnleiters. In: Friedrich Henke und Otto Lubarsch (Hrsg.): Handbuch der speziellen pathologischen Antomie und Histologie. Band 6, 1. Berlin 1925.