Who Discovered the Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate?: Figure 1.

To the Editor: Recently, an interesting discussion concerning the application of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein appeared in The Journal , with inaccurate information about the history of the discovery of the ESR. Crowson and colleagues in the article1 and later2 suggested that discovery of the ESR occurred in the 1920s. However, the discovery was not made at that time, but at the end of the 19th century. For the sake of the highest standards of discussion, we would remind readers that the discoverer of ESR was a Polish physician, Edmund Faustyn Biernacki (1866–1911; Figure 1)3,4,5,6,7. Figure 1. Edmund Faustyn Biernacki (1866–1911). Reproduced from Biernacki E. Drukarnia Granowskiego i Sikorskiego, 189911. Biernacki announced the discovery in 1897 in 2 articles simultaneously: one in Polish in Gazeta Lekarska 4, the second in German in the Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift 5. It is also possible to identify the … Address correspondence to Dr. Grzybowski; E-mail: ae.grzybowski{at}gmail.com