Investigation of Cholesterol and Fatty Acids in Periodic Catatonia

Abstract

In 1951, J. Cammermeyer and R. Gjessing (I) reported one case of fatal myocardial fat embolism in periodic catatonia with fatty liver. This patient had suffered from periodic catatonia for many years and had been investigated by R. Gjessing (28) for a considerable number of years. One day in the beginning of a psychotic phase he suddenly died. His death was explained by the histological demonstration of fat emboli in the myocardium. A careful clinical survey of the patient and study of his case record failed to reveal any of the usual sources of fat embolism, but a centrolobular fatty degeneration of severe degree was found in the liver which was assumed to be the source of fat emboli.