Development of Clinical Neuropathology in China During the Past Half Century

Abstract

The beginning of Chinese neuropathology can be traced to the early years of the 20th century. In the 1920s to 1940s, a few neurologists from Beijing and Shanghai, such as Cheng Yu-lin, Hsu Yin-kuei, Huang Ke-wei, Zhang Yuan-chang, and Wang Wei-zeng, went to Europe and the United States for training in clinical neuropathology (1). When they returned to China, they became the pioneers of Chinese neuropathology. In 1938, Drs. Hsu Yin-kuei and Cheng Yu-lin published a landmark article on the neuropathology of carbon monoxide poisoning in the famous journal Brain (2). Clinical neuroscience was still under the umbrella of internal medicine in that period. In 1951, neurology and psychiatry were separated as independent subjects with the founding of the Chinese Neurology and Psychiatry Society. From then on, Chinese clinical neuroscience and neuropathology experienced a great development. The important forum, Clinicopath-ological Conferences (CPCs) in Neurology, was imported to China in the 1950s. The most famous CPC in China was the Beijing CPC, which was formally established by Prof. Huang Ke-wei in 1978 and has continued since then for more than 30 years. The current manager is Prof. Wang Lu-ning. The Beijing CPC is held monthly on the second to last Wednesday afternoon at the Chinese PLA General Hospital and is attended by members from all the teaching hospitals with departments of neurology in Beijing. Two puzzling cases provided by the hospitals on a rotating basis are presented and discussed at every session. Moreover, …