Purkinje's Cell Density After Diphenylhydantoin Intoxication in Rats

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Abstract
IN 1954, Livingston1reported persistent ataxia in two patients after treatment with diphenylhydantoin. Since then, others2-5have reported loss of Purkinje's cells and proliferation of Bergmann's glial layer in patients with epilepsy, lesions which were ascribed to the diphenylhydantoin treatment. Dam,6however, found the loss of Purkinje's cells in 32 patients with idiopathic epilepsy to be related to the frequency of grand mal seizures and not to the diphenylhydantoin medication. Loss of Purkinje's cells has been observed in cats2,3,7and rats7,8intoxicated with diphenylhydantoin, whereas application of a quantitative method for estimating the cell loss in diphenylhydantoin intoxicated pigs and monkeys revealed no such effect of diphenylhydantoin.9,10 The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the loss of Purkinje's cells in rats intoxicated with diphenylhydantoin could be verified by using a quantitative method.