[Catecholamine metabolism in extrapyramidal disorders in patients with chronic hypertensive encephalopathy].

Total and cerebral metabolism of catecholamines (CA) was examined in patients with associated chronic hypertonic encephalopathy and extrapyramidal disorders. It was discovered for the first time that there was an increase in noradrenaline in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid together with a lowering of the content of dopamine and major metabolite thereof along the pathway of oxidative deamination of homovanillic acid. CA metabolism was shown to correlate with the patients' age, duration and gravity of extrapyramidal disorders.