Yoto Stoyanov 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.Tanchev, Y., Z. Evstatiev, D. Dorosiev, Z. Pencheva, G. Tsvetkov. Studies on nephritis in the region of Vratza. Savr. Med., 7, 9, 1956, 14 – 29 (in Bulgarian)
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. World Health Organization. Memorandum: The endemic nephropathy of South-Eastern Europe. Bull. World Health Org. 1965; 32:441-448 Google Scholar
==Early life and education==
Yoto Tanchev was born on the 30th 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.Momchilov, K. Bulgarian inventions. Interview Press, Sofia, 2002, 137-146, ISBN 954-666-041-8
==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. 
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. 
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.
Category:Bulgarian physicians
Category:Scientists
Category:Professors
Category:1917 births
Category:2000 deaths
Category:Bulgarian people