The Neurologist Who Read the Body’s Silent Signs: The Story of Dr. Sunil Pradhan

On 25 June 1957, in the town of Najibabad in Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh, a boy named Sunil Pradhan was born who would spend a lifetime listening to the quiet language of nerves and muscles. He studied in various schools across Jhansi, Aligarh, Banda, Allahabad and Lucknow before choosing medicine. He graduated MBBS from King George’s Medical College (now University) in Lucknow in 1979, completed his MD in Internal Medicine in 1983, and specialised with a DM in Neurology in 1986 from the same institution.

His early career took him to Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai, the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore, and Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad. In 1989 he joined the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) in Lucknow, where he would spend the greater part of his professional life, rising to Professor and eventually Head of the Department of Neurology. He also served for a period as Head of Neurology and Medical Superintendent at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) in Delhi before returning to SGPGIMS, from where he later retired.

Dr. Pradhan is known for two original electrophysiological techniques, including the method that bears his name for studying intercostal nerves. Even more distinctive are the clinical signs he described in muscular dystrophies. One of them, related to Duchenne muscular dystrophy, is widely known as the Pradhan Sign. Altogether he identified five (and in some accounts more) new clinical signs that help doctors recognise specific neuromuscular disorders earlier and more accurately. His research also advanced understanding of Japanese encephalitis, Hirayama-type monomelic amyotrophy, epilepsy, stroke and other neurological conditions. He has published extensively and written books that continue to guide younger neurologists.

In 2002 he received the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Medical Sciences. In 2014 the Government of India conferred upon him the Padma Shri for his contributions to neuroscience. Other honours include the Dr. B.C. Roy Award, multiple ICMR awards, the Uttar Pradesh Vigyan Ratna, an honorary FRCP from the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and honorary DSc degrees from Indian universities.

One evening, after examining a young patient with a rare muscle disorder, a resident asked him, “Sir, how do you notice signs that others miss?”

Dr. Sunil Pradhan smiled the quiet smile of a physician who had spent decades watching the body speak without words.

“The nervous system and the muscles have their own language,” he said. “If we listen carefully—through careful examination, through electrophysiology, through patient observation—they tell us the diagnosis long before the machines confirm it. Early recognition means earlier care and better lives. That is why every new sign, every new technique, is worth the years of looking. The patient is always teaching us, if we are willing to learn.”

And so the neurologist from Najibabad who trained in Lucknow and worked across India’s leading centres, who gave the medical world the Pradhan Sign and new electrophysiological methods, continues to be remembered for turning careful observation into lasting tools that help doctors understand and treat disorders of nerve and muscle more precisely than before.