Spongy degeneration of grey matter in 3 children: Neuropathological report

Abstract

Spongy degeneration of the cerebral grey matter is reported in 3 unrelated boys dying at the ages of 15 and 16 months and 3 years. Some of the neuropathological changes in the cases presented here and in other similar cases are like those in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and in kuru, conditions which have recently been transmitted to monkeys. The aetiology of spongy degeneration in children is not known, and it would be worth while to find out whether the disease is transmissible.