[Metabolic myelosis (author's transl)].

102 patients suffering from metabolic myelosis were studied clinically. Among the early signs and symptoms, pins and needles, freezing or burning feet, and impaired kinaesthesia were the most frequent ones. With the syndrome progressing, motor disturbances of supramotoneuronal character developed. Every third patient had neurogenic ischuria. Examinations of the cerebrospinal fluid did not reveal any deviation characteristic or "typical" of myelosis. Different pathogenic factors were detected by analysis according to the rules of internal medicine. However, no single factor defining myelosis aetiologically could be discovered. The majority of cases suggested that the metabolic steady state decompensated by the coincidence of more than one factor, thus initiating myelosis. The following pathogenic factors were observed frequently: Malabsorption, abuse or intoxication, liver cell damage, neoplasm. The great variety of pathogenic factors emphasizes that metabolic myelosis must be counted among the polygenetic identical reactions of the central nervous system. These are the organism alarming signals and they require comprehensive general examinations.