title: [Ultrastructural changes of myelinated fibers in the brain in continuous and attack-like paranoid schizophrenia].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previously the authors have reported the ultrastructural pathology of myelinated fibers (MF) in the brain in schizophrenia. The aim of the present study was to compare the effect of disease course on ultrastructural changes of MF.
  
  
  METHODS
  Postmortem electron microscopic morphometric study of MF was performed in the prefrontal cortex, caudate nucleus and hippocampus in 19 cases of paranoid schizophrenia. Fourteen cases of continuous schizophrenia, 5 cases of attack-like schizophrenia and 25 normal matched control cases were studied. The proportion (percentage) of pathological MF was estimated in the prefrontal cortex, layer 5, CA3 area of hippocampus, pyramidal layer, and in the head of the caudate nucleus.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The percentage of MF having axonal atrophy and swelling of periaxonal oligodendrocyte process was significantly higher in both continuous and attack-like schizophrenia in all brain structures studied as compared to the control group. In the hippocampus and caudate nucleus, this parameter was increased significantly in attack-like schizophrenia as compared to continuous schizophrenia. In the prefrontal cortex. The percentage of the pathological MF having signs of deformation and destruction of myelin sheaths increased significantly only in continuous schizophrenia as compared to the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MF pathology is similar in attack-like and continuous paranoid schizophrenia but differ by the degree of severity of pathological MF. Abnormalities in MF contribute to the disconnectivity between the prefrontal cortex, caudate nucleus and hippocampus.
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Research Centre, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: N A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Uranova
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Research Centre, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: N S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Kolomeets
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Research Centre, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: O V
authors.initials: OV
authors.lastname: Vikhreva
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Research Centre, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: I S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Zimina
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Research Centre, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: V I
authors.initials: VI
authors.lastname: Rakhmanova
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Research Centre, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Orlovskaya
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001284:Atrophy; D001344:Autopsy; D001369:Axons / Q000473:pathology; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008875:Middle Aged; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D009836:Oligodendroglia / Q000648:ultrastructure; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid / Q000473:pathology*