FROM LANG TO REAVEN History of the First Department of Internal Medicine at Pavlov St Petersburg State Medical University

Abstract

The review provides evidence that in the early twentieth century the research on the mechanisms of «metabolic cardiovascular syndrome» was started at the Department of Faculty Therapy in Pavlov St Petersburg State Medical University (that was called St Petersburg Women’s Medical University at that time). The investigations were initiated by G.F. Lang, and extended by A.L. Myasnikov, D.M. Grotel, B.V. Ilyinskiy, V.M. Dilman, V.A. Almazov and others, and based on the results they proposed the concept of a cascade of metabolic syndrome and its main components — obesity, insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia. Nowadays, as the continuation of those studies, the first epidemiological Russian study NICA (National Investigation of Cardiovascular Complications in mеtАbolic syndrome) is conducted by the employees of the Department of Faculty Therapy and Almazov Federal Heart, Blood and Endocrinology Centre.