[Presence of aluminum and magnesium in the cerebral arteries and parenchyma of patients with striatonigral syndrome: study by Castaing's microprobe].

Electron probe microanalysis demonstrates the presence of aluminium, magnesium, iron, calcium, phosphorus in and around blood vessels in the pallidum (vascular siderosis) and in the putaminal parenchyma in five out of six cases of striatonigral degeneration, associated with orthostatic hypotension in two of these cases. These results suggest that striatonigral degeneration could be the result of a vascular disease, the result of an elemental intoxication of unknown cause.