Biography

Alvaro Osorio (Ozorio) de Almeida, Brazilian physiologist (Porto Alegre 06 November 1882 – Rio de Janeiro 06 May 1952)

Brother of physiologist Miguel Osorio de Almeida

ACHIEVEMENTS

Created a phenolphthalein relative, the nephthol-β and developed a new treatment method for ancylostomiasis employing it

Invented ureterovenous anastomosis (1927)

Established the oxygen tolerance range under pressure in little mammals

Demonstrated that radiations produce pathological changes in tissues through free radicals formation

Recherches sur l’action toxique des hautes pressions d’oxygene. Comp. Rend. Mem. Soc. Biol. 115:1225-7, 1934

Developed a technique for central nervous system destruction employing injection of hypertonic solutions of sodium chloride into cisterna magna under pressure (1923)

Created cineradiotherapy (1937) and other roentgen therapy techniques

Regarded as world pioneer on hyperbaric hyperoxia related to leprosy and gaseous gangrene treatment (1937-8)

Discovered that basal metabolism depends on usual metabolism  

Discovered that basal metabolism of a person with moderate physical activity decreases gradually when one moves from a temperate climate to a tropical climate without change (his/her) life mode (it no occur in active people)

Suggested that metabolic rate was proportional to the normal average metabolism, depending on the individual lifestyle, the climate where one lives and the skin surface  

Developed a new method for determination of calorimeters constants (1917)

Developed a new technique for studying equilibrium between water, organic salts and organic compounds in animals (1928)

A new process for determination of projection velocity of nervous influx by hearing (1924)

Performed original studies on cellular oxidations

With Gley studied endocrine organs of many Brazilian rodents and marsupial mammals (1923)

Demonstrated the influence of cutaneous reflexes upon metabolism (1926)

With O.B. de Couto e Silva & E. Roquette Pinto. Sobre um novo veneno sagitário dos índios Purus-Borós. Anais Acad. Bras. Ciencias (1926)

Authored a number of studies about temperature and metabolism of weasel, armadillo and bat 

Developed a process for obtaining and storing solar energy (1927)

DID YOU KNOW? 

Famous French scientists like Gley, Lapicque, Pieron, Laugier, Hadamard, Langevin, Marie and Irine Curie beyond Albert Einstein visited his laboratory

LINKS    

http://www.dichistoriasaude.coc.fiocruz.br/iah/pt/verbetes/almalvoz.htm (in Portuguese; bibliography)