STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BRAIN AND ITS MEMBRANES IN RHEUMATISM
With the use of general histologic and selective methods the brain with hard and soft meninges, choroid plexus and ependymal the lining of the ventricles of 24 autopsy cases (14 men, 10 women) with acute (8 cases) and recurrent (16 cases) rheumatism in age from 25 to 68 years were pathomorphologically studied. Some key pathogenetic mechanisms of the severity of the rheumatic process in the brain and its membranes, presented by the changes of alterative and inflammatory nature were determined. Inflammatory changes were expressed by the focal microgranulomatosis process, serous-proliferative panvasculitis, lympho-cellular and histiocytic extravasation. For the first the cases of rare combinations of rheumatic meningoencephalitis and presenile dementia, which ended in a fatal outcome in reproductive age, which may indicate on the pathogenetically contributory role of Alzheimer's disease on the course of the process were described, although feedback is not excluded. There was identified the earliest involvement in the rheumatic process hard and soft membranes of the brain than its substance, because of their histostructure the specifics presented by loose and dense connective tissue - aiming the morphological substrate of rheumatic fever. The results of the research allow to speaking in favor of the existence of rheumatic serous-proliferative meningoencephalitis.