Retrograde scoliosis

A patient having type IV Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is described because of an uncommon combination of malformations. He had multiple aneurysms, a hepatic artery-to-portal vein fistula, and diverticula of the biliary passages, the sigmoid colon, and bladder. He also suffered from scoliosis and dilatation of inner and outer cerebral spinal fluid containing spaces.

The spinal cord and brain of a man who died 18 years after a crush injury of lumbar segments contained some unusual lesions. There was a reduced number of myelinated axons in the corticospinal tracts as high as the fifth cervical segment. Such retrograde degeneration has been described in human pyramidal tracts only a few times. The results of reported studies of experimental retrograde degeneration have been inconsistent. The course of the fasciculus gracilis, as delineated by gliosis, was atypical, and an unusual glial nodule, possibly neoplastic, was present in the dorsal columns at C8...