XANTHOMATOSIS AND THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM (SCHÜLLER-CHRISTIAN SYNDROME)

Abstract

In a previous communication entitled "Xanthomatosis and the Central Nervous System"¹I described numerous demyelinated plaques filled with compound granular corpuscles and giant glia cells in the white matter of the central nervous system. Typical foam cells, as noted in other organs, were not observed in the nervous system at that time. Because of this I was of the opinion that the two types of cells (compound granular corpuscles and giant glia cells) were analogous to the foam cells and the reactive type of cells demonstrated in other organs. Since then Chiari,²in studying the nervous system in a case of xanthomatosis, found the typical foam cells. Stimulated by his observations, I studied further sections of the brain and succeeded in finding occasional collections of foam cells (fig. 1<i>A</i>,<i>B</i>and<i>C</i>) within the demyelinated plaques. The original idea that the giant glia cells are reactive in