The pathology of the brain in rhodesian trypanosomiasis

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Abstract
The pathology of Rhodesian trypanosomiasis is studied in seventeen brains of patients who had suffered from the disease. Case notes are furnished to show the course of the disease as reflected in the condition of the cerebrospinal fluid. The treatment administered is recorded to show how the normally acute Rhodesian form of the disease may be made to approach the chronic Gambian form by treatment insufficient to cure but sufficient to prolong life for even several days. This effect of treatment is offered to explain the fact that the highly virulent T. rhodesiense , which normally kills laboratory animals before many or any lesions appear in the central nervous system, produced in my cases the lesions which have been described in patients infected with T. gambiense , many of whom live for years after infection. It is shown that the meningitis is predominantly vertical. This point is stressed because, as mentioned in the section on the meningeal lesions, several well-known textbooks state that it is basal. The character and distribution of the perivascular infiltrations are described. My findings agree with those of Mott . Bodies resembling corpora amylacea are described, as occurring in the choroid plexuses. Perivascular demyelinization is described as occurring chiefly in the subcortical white matter. It is of small extent but frequently found. It is believed that this lesion has not been described hitherto in human trypanosomiasis.

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