Early stages of status marmoratus.

Basal ganglionic lesions in three young infants were found in a prospective search for early stages of status marmoratus. The lesions had formed and had passed into glial scars well before myelination of the basal ganglia commenced. The myelinating fibers crossing the scarred tissue were disoriented; however, fiber structure was normal, and the numbers of myelin lamellae did not differ significantly between scars and non-scarred tissue. There was no indication of a derangement of the process of myelin formation or of the formation of anomalous myelin sheaths around non-neuronal processes.