Postmortem histopathologic analysis of neurosyphilis: A report of 3 cases with clinicopathologic correlations

Abstract

Neurosyphilis occurs in the late stage of systemic syphilis infection; early diagnosis and treatment are crucial to the prognosis. We review 3 autopsy cases with different subtypes of neurosyphilis, that is cases with meningovascular, general paresis, and a combination of the 2, respectively. We investigated the gross morphology and leptomeninges, vessels, cerebral cortex, white matter, brainstem, cerebellum, olfactory bulb and spinal cord microscopically. We found that meningovascular inflammation exists in both early and late phases of neurosyphilis, not only in the meningovascular subtype. Vertebrobasilar artery involvement is common and infarcts of the areas perfused by these arteries in young patient highly suggests neurosyphilis. Damage to the cortical architecture and neuropil is the main mechanism of dementia in general paresis and temporal lobe may not firstly be involved as many other diseases with dementia. Early involvement of olfactory bulbs may help in the early diagnosis of the disease. Our findings indicate that many specific features may help in clinical practice and that further research is needed to clarify the mechanisms.