Yoto Stoyanov Tanchev

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Yoto Stoyanov Tanchev
Native name	Йото Стоянов Танчев
Born	July 30, 1917 Bodenets, Vratsa Region, Kingdom of Bulgaria
💀Died	September 19, 2000(2000-09-19) (aged 83) Vratsa, BulgariaSeptember 19, 2000(2000-09-19) (aged 83)
💼 Occupation
Title	Physician
👩 Spouse(s)	Liliana Panayotova Tancheva (née Savova) ( (m. 1945) )
👶 Children	Stoyan and Panayot Tanchev

Yoto Stoyanov Tanchev (Bulgarian: Йото Стоянов Танчев) is a Bulgarian physician, nephrologist and scientist, аssociate professor. He discovered the Balkan endemic nephropathy  in 1956 and published in the Bulgarian journal „Savremenna meditsina“ (1956), together with his assistants, the first ever description of the epidemiology and clinical signs of this unknown before this publication endemic disease of the kidneys. Etiological hypotheses were also suggested. This „sui generis“ nephropathy was found only in some endemic regions of Bulgaria, Romania and the former Yugoslavia.

The manifold works of  Prof. Yoto Tanchev evoked great interest in this newly described nephrological pathology, and an avalanche of studies and publications followed. The priority contributions of Yoto Tanchev were generally acknowledged by the scientific world.

Early life and education

Yoto Tanchev was born on the 30^th of July, 1917, in Bodenets, a small village in Vratsa Region, Bulgaria. His father, Stoyan Tanchev, was a clerk, secretary collector in the  municipality of Mezdra, Vratsa Region. His mother, Donka Ivanova-Tancheva, was a housewife. Yoto Tanchev had two sisters. He finished the Men’s High School in Vratsa in 1936. After that he began his studies in medicine at the Faculty of Medicine in the city of Cluj, Romania, where he stayed until 1940, after which he continued his medical education at the Faculty of Medicine of the St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia. Yoto Tanchev graduated in 1942, successfully defending his doctor’s degree on leukocyte changes in some chronic diseases under the superintendance of the eminent Bulgarian physicians Prof. Konstantin Chilov, Prof. Vladimir Alexiev, and Prof. Tosho Gotsev.

Career

Dr. Yoto Tanchev started his professional activities as a general practitioner in several villages of Vratsa Region. In 1947, he was appointed assistant physician at the Regional Hospital of the town of Vratsa, Bulgaria. Being sharp-sighted and theoretically well-prepared, the young Dr. Yoto Tanchev noticed the increased prevalence of kidney diseases in some families in the villages around the town of Vratsa. Furthermore, the presentation of some cases was marked by strange symptoms and unique course of the disease. He began systematic observations on this atypical nephritis. Dr. Yoto Tanchev included in his studies over 600 cases, applying a screening approach, family medical history, clinical examinations and laboratory analysis. In 1956, together with his colleagues from the Regional Hospital, he described for the first time in the world in the journal “Savremenna Meditsina” the main symptoms of this unusual disease, which occurs in certain endemic areas of Bulgaria. In the next years a similar nephropathy was found in Romania and the former Yugoslavia. The important contribution of Dr. Yoto Tanchev and his colleagues consists of first place in the precise description of the clinical picture and laboratory data of this particular disease of the kidneys. There followed an avalanche of studies and publications on this endemic familial disease.

The newly discovered disease was first called “Vratsa nephritis” and later became known as “Balkan endemic nephropathy” (BEN), and also as “Danubian endemic familial nephropathy” since there were subsequently described affected residents of certain areas along the lower Danube river and its tributaries. Many scientific meetings and symposia on the problems of BEN  took place, and there were important publications by well-known Bulgarian and foreign authors in the most authoritative nephrological journals (Kidney International, Nephron, Am. J. Nephrology, Clinical Nephrology and many others).

Dr. Yoto Tanchev established the first specialised clinic of nephrology and haemodialisis in Bulgaria at  the Regional Hospital of Vratsa in 1962. He was appointed chief physician of it, and led it until his retirement in 1984

Works and achievements

Prof. Yoto Tanchev published more than 250 scientific works on the problems of nephrology, general medicine, oncology and haemodialisis. The main topic of his scientific research was BEN (etiology, diagnosis, clinics, therapy, prophylaxis).

In 1970, Dr. Tanchev was elected Assoc. Prof. at the Chair of Internal Diseases of the  Medical Faculty of Sofia. Parallelly, he continued his service as head of the nephrological clinic of the Regional Hospital in Vratsa. He kept on his research on BEN as well.

The first description of BEN by Yoto Tanchev and colleagues attracted the attention of the international nephrological community, and, in 1964, the WHO organized a prestigious congress on the problems of BEN in the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia.  The most authoritative nephrologists from all over the world took part in it. At this forum, it was generally acknowledged that this peculiar endemic nephropathy, described by Prof. Yoto Tanchev and co-authors, represents a new nosological entity in human pathology.

In 1988, the Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria (then INRA) deservedly awarded Prof. Tanchev and his team a diploma for discovery (No. 8 in Bulgaria), named “Phenomenon in Nephropathies”, and inscribed them in the Golden Book of Discoverers.

It is noteworthy to mark that in the most authoritative nephrology textbooks and books such as “Oxford Textbook of Clinical Nephrology” edited by S. Cameron et al., “The Kidney” of the Harvard University and the University of California edited by B. Brenner and F. Rector, and etc., the chapters on BEN begin with the name of the discoverer of the disease, Y. Tanchev. His scientific achievements have been highly appreciated by the world nephrological community, being a great international recognition for the Bulgarian science and medicine.

Prof. Yoto Tanchev was awarded the Honorary Citizenship of the town of Vratsa (posthumously, 2001) and several state orders as well. He was acknowledged as one of the Famous Alumni of the Medical Faculty of the Medical University of Sofia.

Personal life

In 1945, Dr. Yoto Tanchev married Liliana Panayotova Savova (1923-2012). She was born in Vratsa. Her Father, Panayot Savov, was a wealthy factory-owner, whose property and assets were nationalised by the communists (1947). Liliana served as a statistician at the Regional Hospital in Vratsa. They had two sons who followed the professional example of their father and studied medicine in Sofia. They rose as renowned surgeons and university lecturers.  Prof. Stoyan Tanchev (born 1945) is Head of the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical University of Pleven, while Prof. Panayot Tanchev (born 1948) is Head of the Spinal Surgery Department at the Gorna Bania University Hospital in Sofia.

Death

Prof. Yoto Tanchev died on the 19th of September 2000 in Vratsa, Bulgaria, suffering on a heavy brain stroke at the age of 83.

References

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