Etat Marbre of the Corpus Striatum Following Birth Injury

THE presence of myelinated fibres in aggregations of a density abnormal for that particular region of the nervous system constitutes etat marbre. In the cerebral cortex of the adult such localized areas of,hypermyelination may occur as an incidental feature of the pathology of cardiovascular disease or of carbon monoxide poisoning. Etat marbre of the corpus striatum, however, appears to be a phenomenon of infancy or, rarely, of early child-hood, andits pathogenesis is still a matter of con-troversy, it being claimed on the one hand that the condition is a prenatal anomaly of growth, on the other that birth injury is the probable causative factor. There are several lines of evidence giving support to the latter view. First, in a high proportion of the