Читать книгу Neurosyphilis. Modern Systematic Diagnosis and Treatment Presented in One Hundred and Thirty-Seven Case Histories онлайн

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The lessons of this finding are several: The inflammatory process in this case does not appear to have been entirely extinct! Can we not suppose that treatment might still have benefited this local inflammation (perivascular infiltration of the cervical spinal cord substance and overlying lymphocytic meningitis)? Can we not also picture the gradual ascent of the inflammatory lesions from lower segments to higher segments and possibly conceive of the gradual elevation of the zone of hyperæsthesia manifested in this case as following the gradual displacement upward of the lymphocytic process? Are there spirochetes in this tissue? So far none have been discovered, possibly through inaccuracies of available technique. To the neuropathologist, however, the lesion looks like a local reaction to organisms.

In addition to the spinal meningitis, chronic and acute, as above described, there were extensive parenchymatous spinal lesions.

In the first place, the meningitis had affected practically all the posterior roots so that the explanation of the posterior column sclerosis of this case is clear. The meningitis had apparently been so marked, also, that all the fibres anywhere near the periphery of the spinal cord had been likewise destroyed. The posterior columns and the posterior root zones were markedly sclerotic; or as we say (having reference to the overgrowth of neuroglia tissue) gliotic. But there was as much sclerosis (gliosis) of the lateral columns (particularly in the posterior two-thirds) as there was in the posterior columns and root zones. In fact, the entire posterior half or two-thirds of the spinal cord markedly outstripped the anterior portions of the cord in the severity of the gliosis (sclerosis) shown.