Pathological changes in the central and peripheral nervous system of young long-term diabetics - II. The spinal cord and peripheral nerves

Abstract

A study of the spinal cord and peripheral nerves of 15 long-term, juvenile diabetic patients has revealed the following changes: - 1. atrophy of the spinal cord, sometimes with fibrosis of the leptomeninges; - 2. degeneration of the ganglion cells of the anterior and posterior horns; - 3. demyelinization and axon cylinder loss in the posterior columns and the peripheral nerves, increasing in severity towards the periphery; - 4. severe neurogenic atrophy of the muscles; - 5. mild abnormalities in the blood vessels of the spinal cord in some of the cases, which were more pronounced in the peripheral nerves; - 6. severe hyalinosis in the muscle capillaries. - On the whole, the vascular changes were not severe enough to explain the presence of the ganglion cell and nerve fibre abnormalities observed in the spinal cord and peripheral nerves of young, long-term diabetic patients. © 1968 Springer-Verlag.