Marbling and Perinatal Anoxia

Summary The clinical histories and physical findings are presented of 3 mentally deficient boys, in each of whom there was a story of perinatal asphyxia due to circulatory obstruction of the umbilical cord, One child had a pulseless prolapsed cord, one had a pulseless cord due to a firm knot, and one had a pulseless cord due to the cord being tightly round the neck. The pathological findings in the nervous system are described. All the 3 children had small brains. In 3, striking marbling of the thalami, the putamina and globi pallidi was seen. These 3 cases also had loss of nerve cells in the cortex insula and Ammon's horn. Gliosis was also present in the reticulated area of the substantia cular gliosis was increased. It was con‐ cluded from staining characteristics that damage in these areas had resulted in dense gliosis. In one child, damage to the thalamus and basal ganglia was present but to a less striking extent and multiple foci of gliosis were seen in the grey matter of the frontal and parietal cortex. This work is a shortened form of an essay which was written for, and awarded a prize in, the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board's 1958 Competition for Research Reports. I a m indebted t o Dr. L. Crome and Dr. B. H. Kirman, and other colleagues at the Fountain Hospital, for the help they gave me.