Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:40:17.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Size of Cerebral Ventricles in 66 Psychiatric Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

P. Van Boxel
Affiliation:
The Geoffrey Knight Psychosurgical Unit, Regional Neurosurgical Centre, Brook General Hospital, Shooter's Hill Road, London SE18 4LW
P. K. Bridges
Affiliation:
The Geoffrey Knight Psychosurgical Unit, Regional Neurosurgical Centre, Brook General Hospital, Shooter's Hill Road, London SE18 4LW
J. R. Bartlett
Affiliation:
The Geoffrey Knight Psychosurgical Unit, Regional Neurosurgical Centre, Brook General Hospital, Shooter's Hill Road, London SE18 4LW
T. Trauer
Affiliation:
York Clinic, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 1NR

Summary

The routine air ventriculograms of 66 psychiatric patients, aged from 22 to 73 years, taken during the psychosurgical operation of stereotactic subcaudate tractotomy, were studied. Ventricular size was unrelated to progressive ageing, but a minority of patients over 60 years had abnormally large ventricles, not invariably associated with cognitive impairment on testing. Enlargement was associated with a clinical diagnosis of schizoaffective illness but not with past ECT.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1978 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bridges, P. K. & Barlett, J. R. (1977) Psychosurgery: yesterday and today. British Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 249–60.Google Scholar
Bruijn, G. W. (1959) Pneumoencephalography in the Diagnosis of Cerebral Atrophy. Utrecht: H. J. Smits.Google Scholar
Engeset, A. & Lönnum, A. (1958) Third ventricles of 12 mm width or more. Acta Radiologica (Stockh.), 50, 511.Google Scholar
Froshaug, H. & Retterstol, N. (1956) Clinical and pneumoencephalographic studies on cerebral atrophies of middle age. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica, Supplement, 106, 83102.Google Scholar
Göktepe, E. O., Young, L. B. & Bridges, P. K. (1975) A further review of the results of stereotactic subcaudate tractotomy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 270–80.Google Scholar
Gosling, R. H. (1955) The association of dementia with radiologically demonstrated cerebral atrophy. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 18, 129–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haug, J. O. (1962) Pneumoencephalographic studies in mental disease. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, Supplement, 165, 38.Google Scholar
Haugen, A. & Hove, J. (1948) Encephalographic investigations of psychiatric patients. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica, 23, 7993.Google Scholar
Heinrich, H. (1941) Altertumsvorgänge in Röntgenbild. Leipzig: Thieme.Google Scholar
Huckman, M. S., Fox, J. & Topel, J. (1975) The validity of criteria for the evaluation of cerebral atrophy by computed tomography. Radiology, 116, 8592.Google Scholar
Irving, G., Robinson, R. A. & McAdam, W. (1970) The validity of some cognitive tests in the diagnosis of dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 117, 149–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobi, W. & Winkler, H. (1927) Encephalographische Studien an chronisch Schizophrenen. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 81, 299322.Google Scholar
Jankovic, B. D., Jakulic, S. & Horvat, J. (1977) Cerebral atrophy. An immunological disorder? Lancet, ii, 219–20.Google Scholar
Johnstone, E. C., Crow, T. J., Frith, C. D., Husband, J. & Kreel, L. (1976) Cerebral ventricular size and cognitive impairment in chronic schizophrenia. Lancet, ii, 924–6.Google Scholar
Knight, G. (1965) Stereotactic tractotomy in the surgical treatment of mental illness. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 28, 304–10.Google Scholar
Knudsen, P. A. (1958) Ventriklernes Storrelsesforhold i Anatomisk Normale Hjerner fra Voksne Mennesker (Disp.). Odense. (Quoted by Haug, 1962.) Google Scholar
Last, R. J. & Tompsett, T. H. (1953) Casts of cerebral ventricles. British Journal of Surgery, 40, 525–43.Google ScholarPubMed
Mann, A. H. (1973) Cortical atrophy and air encephalography: a clinical and radiological study. Psychological Medicine, 3, 374–8.Google Scholar
McFie, J. (1975) Assessment of Organic Intellectual Impairment, London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Robertson, E. G. (1967) Pneumoencephalography. Springfield, U.S.A.: Charles Thomas.Google Scholar
Sjaastad, O. & Lonnum, A. (1966) Long-term prognosis of patients with central cerebral ventricular enlargement. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica, 42, 317–53.Google Scholar
Troland, C. E., Baxter, D. H. & Schatzki, R. (1946) Observations on encephalographic findings in cerebral trauma. Journal of Neurosurgery, 3, 390–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.