[Cytologic survey of CSF in the meningeal hemorrhages (author's transl)]. / L'examen cytologique du liquide céphalo-rachidien dans les hémorragies méningées.

We have selected a group of young patients, without any pathological past, admitted in the hospital after traffic accidents. CSF was examined at various periods after the accident as well on the cytological as on the biological point. If the lumbar punction is undertaken in the very few hours after the trauma or at the time of the onset of a meningeal syndrom, the presence of oxyhemoglobin may confirm the abnormal bleeding and makes difference with the stitching of a vessel during the punction. The presence of macrophages red blood cell containing may characterize a 2--3 days bleeding. The presence of macrophages containing iron pigment may confirm that the bleeding appeared at least 6--7 days before the cytological patterns and the chromoprotein assays provide a valuable help to the physiologist and may be applied to all types of meningeal hemorrhages.

The subdural neurothelium of the cranial meninges in man.

The neurothelium obtained from human biopsy specimens is a very thin cellular layer located between the dura mater and the arachnoidea. It is a pluri-stratified squamous layer which has some epithelial features (desmosomes and tonofilaments), and lacks connective tissue fibers in the extracellular spaces. Usually there is increased nuclear and cytoplasmic density and enlarged extracellular spaces from the deepest to the most superficial layer. Since neurothelium is fragile and easily torn apart, it probably occupies the position considered to be the subdural space.

Arachnoidea and subarachnoid spaces of the vault of the skull in man.

This field is meagerly represented in the literature. The aim of this paper is to check in man the descriptions which for the most part were made in animals. Specimens were taken during the course of neurosurgical operations. Arachnoidea of the vault of the skull is situated beneath the subdural neurothelium previously described in man by the same authors. Its cells have epithelial features. Its extracellular spaces are more or less dilated and contain connective tissue fibers. Subarachnoid spaces appear as dilated perivascular spaces. Under the conditions in which human specimens were obtained, we cannot determine whether the cellular coverings of the deep surface of the arachnoidea are continuous. The adventitiae of the subarachnoid vessels contain an apparently continuous cellular sheath, which does not usually occur in other vessels. Arachnoid trabeculae are of uncommon occurrence. Their connective tissue fibers are isolated from the surrounding cerebrospinal fluid by an apparently continuous cellular covering.