[Progressive myoclonic encephalopathy in dialysis patients: presence of high concentrations of aluminium in the lysosomes of the cerebral cells (author's transl)].

Sampling of brain tissue of two patients who died of dialysis encephalopathy syndrome have been studied using a combined electron microscope-electron microprobe x-ray analyzer. X-ray microanalysis showed that aluminium is present in high concentration in lysosomes of brain cells. This concentration is approximately one thousand-fold that which is normally measured in the grey matter. In these lysosomes, aluminium is present in needle like microcrystalline form of 0.006 micron diameter and 0.08 micron long on the average; in these crystals, aluminium is associated with phosphorus in a ratio of one atom of aluminium per atom of phosphorus. Similar lesions have been observed in the rat after intraperitoneal injections of water-soluble aluminium salts.