{{Short description|Australian pathologist}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
'''Ralph Douglas Kenneth Reye''' ({{IPAc-en|r|aɪ}} "rye"; 5 April 1912 – 16 July 1977) was an Australian pathologist.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Alexander |first=J. M. |date=1978 |title=Ralph Douglas Kenneth Reye |journal=Australian Paediatric Journal |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=48 |issn=0004-993X |pmid=356835}}</ref><ref name="ANU - ADB - Reye, Ralph Douglas Kenneth (1912–1977)">{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |id2=reye-ralph-douglas-kenneth-11511|title=Reye, Ralph Douglas Kenneth (1912–1977)|accessdate=13 February 2012}}</ref> In 1958, he discovered a muscular disease that was later named nemaline myopathy.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Schnell |first1=C. |last2=Kan |first2=A. |last3=North |first3=K. N. |date=2000 |title='An artefact gone awry': identification of the first case of nemaline myopathy by Dr R.D.K. Reye |journal=Neuromuscular Disorders |volume=10 |issue=4–5 |pages=307–312 |doi=10.1016/s0960-8966(99)00123-6 |issn=0960-8966 |pmid=10838259|s2cid=38543084 }}</ref> A brain disease he and his colleagues described in 1963 is eponymously known as Reye syndrome.<ref name="University of Sydney - Sydney Medical School - Douglas Reye">{{cite web|url=http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/museum/mwmuseum/index.php/Reye,_Ralph_Douglas_Kenneth|title=Reye, Ralph Douglas Kenneth|publisher=University of Sydney|accessdate=24 August 2012}}</ref>
==Life and career== Reye was born in Townsville, Queensland, Australia, in a German immigrant family.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Haubrich |first=William S. |date=2005-06-01 |title=Reye of Reye’s syndrome |url=https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(05)00705-5/fulltext |journal=Gastroenterology |language=English |volume=128 |issue=7 |pages=1786 |doi=10.1053/j.gastro.2005.04.021 |issn=0016-5085}}</ref> He attended Townsville Grammar School and the University of Sydney, where he completed undergraduate studies in medicine and was awarded a MBBS in 1937. He was later awarded an MD from the University of Sydney in 1945.<ref name="ANU - ADB - Reye, Ralph Douglas Kenneth (1912–1977)"/><ref name="University of Sydney - Sydney Medical School - Douglas Reye"/> Reye joined the staff of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children (RAHC) in 1939 as a pathologist, and remained there for all his working life. In 1965, Reye was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. On 16 July 1977, Reye died at the age of 65, of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm at Royal North Shore Hospital, 24 hours after he had retired from the RAHC.<ref name="ANU - ADB - Reye, Ralph Douglas Kenneth (1912–1977)"/>
== Contributions ==
=== Nemaline myopathy === {{Main|Nemaline myopathy}} In 1958, Reye identified a disease that involved muscular weakness in which the muscle fibres appeared as thick threads or rods.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bornemann |first1=Antje |last2=Goebel |first2=Hans H. |date=2006-04-05 |title=Congenital Myopathies |journal=Brain Pathology |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=206–217 |doi=10.1111/j.1750-3639.2001.tb00393.x |issn=1015-6305 |pmc=8098536 |pmid=11303796}}</ref> He did not publish his discovery as it was argued that the microscopic observations could be artefacts.<ref name=":0" /> Later known as nemaline myopathy, the medical condition was established independently by American researchers P.E. Cohen and G. M. Shy in 1963.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Nemaline Myopathy - NORD (National Organization for Rare Disorders) |url=http://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/nemaline-myopathy/ |access-date=2016-04-10 |website=NORD (National Organization for Rare Disorders) |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Brooke |first1=M. H. |last2=Carroll |first2=J. E. |last3=Ringel |first3=S. P. |date=1979 |title=Congenital hypotonia revisited |journal=Muscle & Nerve |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=84–100 |doi=10.1002/mus.880020203 |issn=0148-639X |pmid=397413|s2cid=29702871 }}</ref>
=== Reye syndrome === {{main|Reye syndrome}}
In 1963, Reye, Graeme Morgan, and Jim Baral reported a kind of brain disease in ''The Lancet.''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Reye |first1=R. D. |last2=Morgan |first2=G. |last3=Baral |first3=J. |date=1963 |title=Encephalopathy and Fatty Degeneration of the Viscera: A Disease Entity in Childhood |journal=Lancet |volume=2 |issue=7311 |pages=749–752 |doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(63)90554-3 |issn=0140-6736 |pmid=14055046}}</ref> The disease was later known as Reye syndrome.<ref name="ANU - ADB - Reye, Ralph Douglas Kenneth (1912–1977)"/><ref name="University of Sydney - Sydney Medical School - Douglas Reye"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Reyes, Douglas}} Category:1912 births Category:1977 deaths Category:Australian pathologists Category:People from Townsville Category:Sydney Medical School alumni Category:20th-century Australian medical doctors Category:People educated at Townsville Grammar School