[Concurrence of Fahr's disease with cerebellar tumors]. / Sochetanie bolezni Fara s opukholiami mozzhechka.

Fara's disease or idiopathic calcification of the basal ganglia is a rare disease that is characterized by multiple petrificates in the area of the basal ganglia, caudate nucleus, and dentate nuclei of the cerebellum. As of now, only two cases of a concurrence of Fara's disease and brain tumors have been described. The authors present two more cases. Both cases are unique since the tumors occurred in the presence of Fara's disease symmetrically, as in the mirror, in the cerebellar hemispheres at the periphery of petrificates. This may be confirmed by the fact that astrocytic proliferation and hyperplasia around the calcified vessels are a cause of neoplasms.

Analysis of fluid in craniopharyngioma-related cysts in children: proteins, lactate and pH.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the possible role of blood-brain barrier disruption in cyst formation in craniopharyngioma. Fifteen samples of cyst fluid and 14 samples of blood serum were collected from 14 patients with cystic forms of craniopharyngiomas and studied biochemically regarding total protein, albumin, immunoglobulins G and M contents, lactate and pH. Analysis of the data obtained for cyst fluids according to Felgenhauer and comparing them to those obtained for the corresponding blood sera led us to prove the hypothesis of blood-brain barrier impairment in patients with cyst formations in craniopharyngioma. We have also revealed an elevated lactate content and decreased pH in cyst fluids compared with blood sera. Thus the pathogenesis of craniopharyngiomal cyst appears to be much more akin to those described for cysts accompanying other brain tumours than it was believed earlier.

[Lipid peroxidation in the cyst fluid of craniopharyngiomas]. / Perekisnoe okislenie lipidov v kistoznoi zhidkosti kraniofaringiom.

Comparing of the craniopharyngiomas cyst fluid, collected during the surgery, with blood plasma revealed significantly enhanced lipid peroxidation and lactate accumulation in tumour cysts contents. These processes were usually more prominent in endosuprasellar than in suprasellar craniopharyngiomas. The maximum of free radical formation in conjunction with the lowest level of malondialdehyde (MDA) was observed in primary tumours with relatively high proliferation rate. Controversial parameters ratio characterised the recurrent craniopharyngiomas, and in cyst fluids of the primary tumours with low proliferation rate the medium parameter's values were observed. Thus, the estimation of free radical formation level and MDA concentration in cyst fluid of craniopharyngioma seems to be prognostic for the tumour recurrence.

[Single-photon emission-computed tomography of the brain in craniopharyngiomas in the late postoperative period]. / Odnofotonnaia émissionnaia komp'iuternaia tomografiia golovnogo mozga pri kraniofaringiomakh v otdalennom posleoperatsionnom periode.

The paper analyzes tomographic scanning images of 32 patients with craniopharyngiomas in the late postoperative period. Computed tomographic data allowed the patients to be divided into 3 groups: 1) 10 patients without signs of tumor recurrence or hydrocephalus; 2) 14 patients with recurrent cystic craniopharyngiomas; 3) 8 patients with severe hydrocephalus. Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) of the brain indicated regional disturbances of brain tissue blood supply in the frontobasal or frontobasotemporal regions of the right hemisphere (the area of an surgical access and of the removed tumor) and revealed them in the distal areas (frontobasotemporal regions of the left hemisphere, parietal and occipital cortices of the cerebral hemisphere or cerebellar tissue). The compensatory reserves of cerebral circulation were assessed by the foci of relative physiological hyperemia of brain tissue (the cerebellum and the medial portions of the occipital regions of the brain). The findings provide evidence for that the vascular factor is involved in the late postoperative pathological picture in patients with craniopharyngiomas.