gms | German Medical Science

57th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Neuropathology and Neuroanatomy (DGNN)

German Society for Neuropathology and Neuroanatomy

12. - 15.09.2012, Erlangen

57th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Neuropathology and Neuroanatomy (DGNN)

Neurodevelopmental Disorders in a Case of Morphine Addiction

Meeting Abstract

  • Daniel Sebastián Totxo Guerrero - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
  • presenting/speaker Ma. Francisca Tristán Agundis - Hospital Psiquiátrico "Fray Bernardino Álvarez", Mexico City, Mexico
  • Gustavo Vargas Félix - Universidad La Salle, Mexico City, Mexico
  • Rosa Emma Alonso Zúñiga - Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Pototsí, Mexico
  • Carlos Castañeda González - Hospital Psiquiátrico "Fray Bernardino Álvarez", Mexico City, Mexico
  • Horacio Reza Garduño Treviño - Hospital Psiquiátrico "Fray Bernardino Álvarez", Mexico City, Mexico
  • Brenda Peralta Rodríguez - Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía "Manuel Velasco Suárez", Mexico City, Mexico
  • Nohemí Gelista Herrera - Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía "Manuel Velasco Suárez", Mexico City, Mexico
  • Daniel Rembao Bojórquez - Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía "Manuel Velasco Suárez", Mexico City, Mexico

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neuropathologie und Neuroanatomie. 57th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Neuropathology and Neuroanatomy (DGNN). Erlangen, 12.-15.09.2012. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2012. Doc12dgnnPP4.18

doi: 10.3205/12dgnn095, urn:nbn:de:0183-12dgnn0955

Published: September 11, 2012

© 2012 Totxo Guerrero et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

Objective: To describe the neuropathological findings in a case of morphine addiction.

Materials and Methods: In the Pathology Department of the “Fray Bernardino Álvarez” Psychiatric Hospital, there are 410 autopsy cases. We selected the case of a 64-year-old male with a record of 35-year addiction to morphine, auditory and visual hallucinations, and dellusions of reference. We reviewed the medical history and the autopsy material. The tissues were formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded, cut into 5–7μm slices, and stained with hematoxylin-eosin and argentaffin techniques in order to perform photonic microscopy.

Results: Macroscopically, the brain had a congestive appearance, with gyri flattening and sulci effacement. The histopathological study revealed microinfarctions in caudate nuclei; putamen; and frontal, temporal and cerebellar cortex; and a thrombus in the medulla oblongata. Moreover, several cortical regions showed spongiosis, with increasing of the perivascular and pericellular spaces, gliosis, chromatolysis, neuronophagia, vacuolated neurons, neuronal depopulation, and axons in different directions, some of which were bifurcated.

Conclusions: The microscopic features confirmed the diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental disorder (cortical dysplasia) with the presence of severe vascular alterations.