[Pathohistologic and biochemical changes in the brain in atherosclerosis and atherosclerotic dementia].

Results of clinico-morphological and biochemical examinations of 66 autopsy cases are presented. At lifetime the deceased were suffering from atherosclerosis: 16 of them showed no psychotic disturbances; 14 had a pseudoparalytic, 20 a lacunar, and 14 a senile-like form of dementia. With the use of histological staining 22 brain specimens were examined. The biochemical examinations included determinations of total cholesterol, cholesterol fractions, total lipid phosphorus, lecithine, sphingomyelin, phosphatidyl-ethanolamine and diphosphoinositide. It has been found that the process of brain atrophy has a certain relation to the psychotic symptoms and shows a progress from the first to the last group. Qualitative and quantitative changes of lipids are manifest. The content of phospholipids, and, first of all, lecithine, drops, the content of total cholesterol rises, and bound cholesterol appears. Atherosclerosis is a disease at the basis of which there are persistent disturbances of lipid metabolism and biosynthesis of brain lipids.