17 Facts About Oskar Fischer

Oskar Fischer was a Czech academic, psychiatrist and neuropathologist whose studies on dementia and Alzheimer's disease were rediscovered in 2008.

Oskar Fischer's father was the manager of an agricultural estate there.

Oskar Fischer began his career at the department of pathological anatomy of German University in 1900.

Oskar Fischer served as a physician-in-chief at the division of neurology and psychiatry of the second garrison hospital in Prague during World War I, and treated many soldiers who had experienced mental difficulties while fighting on the Eastern Front.

Oskar Fischer left his tenure at the German University in 1939 and opened a private office for neurology and psychiatry in Prague where he worked until 1941.

Oskar Fischer was a member of the Prague neuropathological school headed by Arnold Pick during his studies in German University.

Oskar Fischer supposedly employed new staining and autopsy results, and described "senile plaques" that are still accepted as the characteristic of the disease in addition to "neurofibrillary tangles" discovered by Alzheimer.

In June 1907, based on the reports of Beljahow that had been later affirmed by Redlich and Leri Oskar Fischer argued that 'miliary necrosis' should be regarded as a marker of senile dementia.

Oskar Fischer developed a comprehensive structural analysis about the changes involving amyloid aggregates observed in the samples.

Oskar Fischer named these lesions as "Sphaerotrichia cerebri multiplex" and used this term in his subsequent articles published in 1910 and 1912.

Oskar Fischer's disease was mainly characterized clinically by presbyophrenia and pathologically by neuritic plaques.

Ultimately, both Alzheimer and Oskar Fischer agreed on the uniqueness of a new clinicopathological condition, regardless of the age of onset.

Oskar Fischer interviewed Fischer's relatives and Czech researchers studying on the disease.

Pavel Kalvach of the Charles University of Prague pointed out in 2009 that Oskar Fischer made arguably even much more important contributions than Alois Alzheimer to the description of the disease.

The reasons for neglecting Oskar Fischer's contributions included the nationalist tensions and the anti-Semitic approach of his period as well as the academic competition between the Prague and Munich neuropathology schools.

Oskar Fischer was detained in small fortress in Terezin in northwestern Bohemia, which was set up near Prague.

Oskar Fischer died at the age of 65 in the camp on 28 February 1942 after being beaten to death.