The evaluation of fat deposits around brain vessels in infants.

Perivascular deposits of lipid material around small encephalic vessels in infants had by some authors been regarded as an indication of damage to the vessel walls. It had been presumed that an acute cerebral oedema could be favoured by such a process. Studying the problem in 100 cases of forensic and non-forensic autopsies were found deposits in cells of the adventitial space in the brain of all infants older than 4-5 weeks as well as in those of older infants and adults. Almost exclusively the vessels of the subcortical medulla were concerned. Further histochemical investigations of lipid material in cells of the CNS suggest that the deposited materials is not a preliminary stage of myelination. The deposits seem to be caused by a slight physiological parenchymal degeneration.