Seiichiro Tarui

Seiichiro Tarui is a Japanese physician, born 1927, Koshifn, Hyōgo Prefecture.

Biography

Seiichiro Tarui qualified in medicine at the University of Osaka in 1953. From 1959 he was an assistant in the Second Department of Internal Medicine at this university, where he conducted clinical research on disorders of carbohydrate metabolism. He was appointed as Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in 1966, and in 1978 he was elevated to the chair of internal medicine. He retired with emeritus status in 1991. He then became Director of Otemae Hospital, Osaka.

Associated eponyms

Tarui's disease - An inborn error of glycogen metabolism characterized by phosphofructokinase deficiency in the muscles, associated with abnormal deposition of glycogen in muscle tissues. Tarui disease typically manifests itself in childhood with exercise intolerance and anaemia. The fatal variant normally onsets within the first year of life, and all reported cases have died before the age of four. The adult variant normally sets in in late adulthood in the form of progressive limb muscle weakness without myoglobinuria or cramps.

The diseases is particularly rare, with only about 40 cases in total reported. It is marginally more prominent in males, than in females.