I discuss issues pertaining to the practice of neuropathology -- including nervous system tumors, neuroanatomy, neurodegenerative disease, muscle and nerve disorders, ophthalmologic pathology, neuro trivia, neuropathology gossip, job listings and anything else that might be of interest to a blue-collar neuropathologist.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Grumose degeneration in the cerebellar dentate nucleus
It’s hard to find a picture of grumose degeneration in a textbook or online. I did, however, find one in an article by Yamanouchi et al. entitled “An Autopsy case of ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency” [Brain & Development 24 (2002) 91-94]. Grumose degeneration appears as eosinophilic granular material around dentate neurons. Neuropathologists usually think of grumose degeneration of the cerebellar dentate as an autopsy finding in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). But the authors of this article describe the same finding in a case of ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency, the most common heritable urea cycle disorder. They point out that although grumose degeneration was first described in a patient with PSP, it has also been reported in certain other neurodegenerative disorders, such as dentatorubropallidoluysian atrophy, Ramsay-Hunt syndrome, and juvenile Alzheimer disease with myoclonus. Ultrastructural studies have revealed that this eosinophilic material corresponds to degenerate Purkinje cell axon terminals. By the way, the word ‘grumose’, which can also be spelled ‘grumous’, means granular and refers to something that resembles grume, which is (according to Webster’s online dictionary) a thick, viscid fluid or clot-like material.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Neuropathology Blog is Signing Off
Neuropathology Blog has run its course. It's been a fantastic experience authoring this blog over many years. The blog has been a source...
-
Shannon Curran, MS with her dissection Shannon Curran, a graduate student in the Modern Human Anatomy Program at the University of Co...
-
Last summer I put up a post about a remarkable whole nervous system dissection that was carried out at the University of Colorado School of ...
6 comments:
Could you write something about epilepsy in the near future?
OK.
Thanks! That is my favourite field at the moment.
I just tried to find a good picture, very difficult indeed
Here it is a beautiful digitalized slide from U of Toronto with grumose degeneration.
http://dlm.lmp.utoronto.ca/image/brain-grumose-degeneration-dentate-nucleus-lmp27265#
Here is a beautiful digitalized slide from U of Toronto with grumose degeneration.
http://dlm.lmp.utoronto.ca/image/brain-grumose-degeneration-dentate-nucleus-lmp27265#
Post a Comment