ABSTRACT
Multiple sclerosis patients, control patients with other neurological diseases, and normal volunteers were assayed in a short-term 51chromium release assay for cell-mediated cytotoxicity against lymphocyte targets coated with myelin basic protein. Multiple sclerosis patients, compared to the other two groups, were hyperreactive to myelin basic protein, both before and after in vitro boost with additional myelin basic protein. The boost served to augment the difference between multiple sclerosis patients and controls.
Subject(s)
Multiple Sclerosis/immunology , Myelin Basic Protein/immunology , Cytotoxicity, Immunologic , Humans , Lymphocytes/immunology , Nervous System Diseases/immunologyABSTRACT
A 65-year-old man had four drop attacks in several days and then a fixed stroke with quadriplegia. At autopsy infarction in the lower pons and upper medulla affected principally the corticospinal tracts. Tegmental destruction included reticular formation nuclei with rostral projections, but spared the lateral reticular formation nuclei, from which arise the descending reticulospinal tracts. This case is the first detailed autopsy report of a patient with drop attacks, and supports the view that at least some drop attacks are caused by transient ischemia of the corticospinal tracts.
Subject(s)
Ischemic Attack, Transient/pathology , Aged , Cerebellum/pathology , Cerebral Arteries/pathology , Cerebral Cortex/pathology , Cerebral Infarction/pathology , Facial Nerve/pathology , Facial Paralysis/pathology , Hemiplegia/pathology , Humans , Intracranial Arteriosclerosis/pathology , Male , Medulla Oblongata/pathology , Neural Pathways/pathology , Pons/pathology , Reflex, Abnormal/pathology , Reticular Formation/pathology , Spinal Cord/pathology , Tegmentum Mesencephali/pathologyABSTRACT
A double-blind trial of the effect of transfer factor on multiple sclerosis patients was carried out. In a series of fifty-six multiple sclerosis patients treated with monthly injections of either transfer factor or placebo for 1 year, no beneficial effect of transfer factor was noted. In addition, none of the immunological and serological parameters studied (measles migration inhibition, measles HI titre or CSF immunoglobulin) changed as a result of transfer factor therapy. Histocompatibility typing and CSF IgG/TP ratios were correlated with the disease activity. Of interest was the finding that the presence of the DW2 antigen, when unassociated with HLA-B7 antigen, appeared to correlate with the mildest form of disease activity.