Department of Medicine, San Giovanni di Dio Hospital, Gorizia, Italy.
Department of Medicine, San Giovanni di Dio Hospital, Gorizia, Italy.
Med Hypotheses. 2018 Feb;111:1-3. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2017.12.014. Epub 2017 Dec 9.
Niccolò Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827), known as Ugo, is one of the masters of the Italian poetry. A writer and a revolutionary, he embraced the ideals of the French Revolution and took part in the stormy political discussions, which the fall of the Republic of Venice had provoked. Despite his poor health, Foscolo lived an adventurous life serving as a volunteer in the Guardia Nazionale and in the Napoleonic army. Following Napoleon's fall (1814), he went into voluntary exile in early 1815. He reached London in Sept. 1816 and lived in poverty at Turnham Green (Chiswick) until his premature death. Foscolo's medical history has been poorly investigated and the cause of his death remains unclear. In an attempt to shed light on his clinical history, we analyzed his Correspondence (Epistolario), a series of more than 3000 letters written between 1794 and 1827. From the age of 26 (1808), Foscolo had frequent episodes of cough and dyspnea that progressively worsened. Four acute respiratory exacerbations occurred in 1812. Between September 1812 and April 1813, he had breathlessness as that of asthma. Frail and ailing, he developed a chronic liver disease in 1826. In August 1827, weakness, dyspepsia and drowsiness further increased and dropsy became manifest. He went into coma on September 7, 1827 and died aged 49 three days later. Based on a brief history of urethritis and urinary obstructions (1811-1812), previous scholars have suggested that Foscolo had urethral stenosis that caused a chronic bladder outlet obstruction and led to consequent renal failure. This hypothesis, however, does not mention the respiratory symptomatology present since 1804, which is a pivotal feature of Foscolo's illness. We surmise that Foscolo suffered from alpha-1 anti trypsin (AAT) deficiency, a rare genetic disease, which caused his premature death and support our interpretation with documental evidence.
尼科洛·乌戈·福斯科洛（1778-1827 年），又名乌戈，是意大利诗歌大师之一。作为一位作家和革命者，他拥护法国大革命的理想，并参与了威尼斯共和国垮台引发的激烈政治讨论。尽管身体不好，福斯科洛还是过着冒险的生活，曾作为国民卫队和拿破仑军队的志愿者。拿破仑倒台后（1814 年），他于 1815 年初自愿流亡。他于 1816 年 9 月抵达伦敦，生活在奇西克的特恩汉姆格林（Turnham Green），生活贫困，英年早逝。福斯科洛的病史调查不佳，他的死因仍不清楚。为了深入了解他的临床病史，我们分析了他的书信集（Epistolario），这是一系列写于 1794 年至 1827 年之间的超过 3000 封信。从 26 岁（1808 年）开始，福斯科洛就经常出现咳嗽和呼吸困难，且症状逐渐恶化。1812 年有四次急性呼吸恶化。1812 年 9 月至 1813 年 4 月，他出现了哮喘样的呼吸困难。身体虚弱多病，他于 1826 年患上了慢性肝病。1827 年 8 月，他的虚弱、消化不良和嗜睡进一步加重，出现水肿。他于 1827 年 9 月 7 日陷入昏迷，三天后去世，享年 49 岁。基于此前存在的尿道炎和尿路梗阻病史（1811-1812 年），先前的学者认为福斯科洛患有尿道狭窄，导致慢性膀胱出口梗阻，继而导致肾衰竭。然而，该假说并未提及自 1804 年以来出现的呼吸系统症状，这是福斯科洛疾病的关键特征。我们推测福斯科洛患有罕见的遗传性疾病α-1 抗胰蛋白酶（AAT）缺乏症，这导致了他的英年早逝，并通过文献证据支持我们的解释。
