Mental and Neurologic Changes in Pernicious Anemia

Pernicious anemia is often complicated by lesions of the spinal cord, although these are not markedly advanced in the average case. Owing to the fact that these patients are treated ordinarily by the internist or general practitioner, less attention is paid to the neurologic complications than their frequency deserves, and for the same reason it is probable that many cases with changes of the spinal cord are not reported. Thus the number of cases on record is much smaller than actual experience indicates that it should be. Grinker 1 listed the percentage of patients showing degeneration of the spinal cord (according to different observers) as follows: Dana, 10; Taylor, 12; Bramwell, 2; Nonne, 2; McCrae, 25; Hannenberg, 50; Woltman, 80 and Grinker, 30 (80 cases of paresthesia are included). Hurst 2 estimated the percentage at 70 and Reese and Beigler, 3 at 80. More recent work tends to verify the