Neurosyphilis : $b Modern systematic diagnosis and treatment presented in one hundred and thirty-seven case historiesSouthard, Elmer Ernest
Science
Neurosyphilis : $b Modern systematic diagnosis and treatment presented in one hundred and thirty-seven case histories
Southard, Elmer Ernest
Neurosyphilis
But although the inflammatory changes in the shape of lymphocytosis were
relatively more prominent in the spinal cord than in the cortex, yet the
cortex yielded evidence of an exceedingly marked destructive process.
Perhaps no layer of any of the areas of the cortex examined failed to
show some atrophic alteration. The upper layers of the cortex were
everywhere more severely diseased than the lower layers. Here we are
dealing with an instance of an active meningomyelitis and subcortical
encephalitis. It is, of course, probable that the W. R., had it been
performed, would have been positive in this case. On the basis of the
histology, we are inclined to regard the clinical picture in this case
as belonging among cases of NON-PARETIC DIFFUSE NEUROSYPHILIS.
This case, as also the next several, is especially instructive in
teaching the difficulty in differentiating paretic and non-paretic
neurosyphilis. Not only is this difficulty met in clinical diagnosis,
but in pathological diagnosis as well.
The histological diagnosis depends in large part on the work of the
Nissl-Alzheimer school, which has received great recognition. At the
present time, however, there is beginning to be considerable doubt as to
the entire validity of this teaching. At any rate there are many
borderline cases in which the differentiation is well nigh impossible.
In this case note chronic meningoencephalitis, with cortical
degeneration, in the absence of plasmocytosis.
From the clinical standpoint the intensity of the W. R., the character
of the gold sol reaction, and the result of therapy have added new
points in differentiation. Much more work controlled by autopsies is
still needed, however, to put us on sure ground in borderline cases.
=VASCULAR NEUROSYPHILIS(?) versus PARETIC NEUROSYPHILIS (“general
paresis”). Autopsy.=
=Case 40.= Case 40 like Case 41 was an error in the diagnosis of general
paresis which might be regarded as academic rather than practical. Both
were cases of arteriosclerotic brain disease with severe cerebellar
involvement. Case 40 had a spinal cord that was not quite normal. There
was a tabetiform lesion in the cervical spinal cord (not elsewhere),
together with a unilateral degeneration suggesting in some respects a
radicular origin. The most striking feature, however, of Case 40 as in
Case 41, was a lesion of the cerebellum. In Case 40 the dentate nuclei
were in large part destroyed by cysts of softening, although the
cerebellar cortex was fairly well preserved on both sides. The details
of Case 40 are as follows:
H. F., male, gear maker, born 1850.
=Heredity.= Maternal grandmother insane. Mother insane at 52, became
demented and lost use of limbs, died at 71. Aunt insane.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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