An anterolateral cervical epidural abscess occurred in the course of a septicaemia caused by Staphylococcus aureus. Early diagnosis, before permanent neurological signs developed, was provided by CT scan without myelography. Total recovery occurred with antibiotic therapy alone.

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The management of intracavernous meningiomas remains controversial. The variety of methods of treatment reflects the difficulty of treating primary meningiomas of the cavernous sinus. Twelve personal cases and a review of the literature permit a choice between a direct surgical approach with or without radiotherapy, only radiation therapy or with no therapy. We think therefore that meningiomas of the cavernous sinus should nowadays be the subject of a surgical biopsy followed by radiotherapy according to their grading.

An immune serum raised against paired helical filaments (PHF) was able to stain senils plaques (SP) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) specifically, the two characteristic lesions of the dementia of Alzheimer-type. This polyclonal antibody against PHF was characterized by immunochemistry and also compared with the classical Bodian silver staining. NFT and SP were observed where they were expected: in the fronto-temporal neo-cortex and hippocampus of Alzheimer-type patients, and also in hippocampus of non-demented elderly subjects. The pattern of SP visualized by the two methods was identical whereas NFT were not detected specifically by silver salts, specially in the nervous tissue where NFT were in discrete quantities. Since the preparation of the antigen is very easy and the resulting antibodies are specific, we conclude that this technique will be of considerable interest for routine neuropathological diagnosis. Finally, the properties of our anti-PHF antibody are compared with those reported in the literature. This antibody will probably be a good tool for the identification of the chemical nature of PHF components.