[A peculiar form of spinal amyotrophy encountered in a limited area of Belorussia].

The authors analyzed the data obtained in a study of 7 cases of peculiar spinal amyotrophy seen in some patients who lived in 3 adjacent villages. The disease had an incipient onset, with a prevalent localization of the pathological process in the anterior horns of the cervical part of the spinal cord and a subsequent progressive development with a lethal outcome accompanied by symptoms of respiratory insufficiency of the spinal type. The CNS was characterized by specific morphological changes. The authors are more in favour of the assumption that this disorder is of infectious nature of the group of gradual infections of the CNS.