Comparative studies on clinical features and CSF proteins of motor neuron disease patients.

Clinical features such as types of diseases, sex ratio, age of onset, sites of initial involvement, the appearance of bulbar signs, and duration of illness were studied in 52 patients with motor neuron disease (MND) with a special reference to immunoglobulin in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum. Although MND has been thought to be a degenerative disease of unknown cause, our data suggested there are some immunological abnormalities in this disease. The duration of illness and the abnormalities of CSF immunoglobulins appeared to be correlated with the type of disease and the site of initial involvement.

Linoleate and fatty acid compositions in the serum lipids of Japanese patients with multiple sclerosis.

Serum fatty acid compositions were determined in 21 Japanese patients with multiple sclerosis and 14 neurological controls. No statistical difference was found either for linoleic acid or for arachidonic acid between the 2 groups. It may be that neither serum linoleic acid nor arachidonic acid is inevitably associated with the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis.

Absence of Carp's agent in sera of patients with multiple sclerosis in Japan.

A study was devised to test for Carp's agent in the sera of Japanese patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The sera were obtained from 17 patients with definite MS and six patients with possible MS. Strain C3H mice were given an intraperitoneal injection of 0.

Increased frequency of lymphocytotoxic antibodies in patients with multiple sclerosis correlated with disease activity.

Cold-reactive lymphocytotoxic antibodies (LCA) were investigated in sera from patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in relation to disease activity. When a serum with more than 20% cytotoxicity is considered positive for the presence of LCA, the positive frequency at remission was 21% (6/28), but at exacerbation it was 83% (10/12). All the sera from normal controls were negative.