A cisticercose do sistema nervoso é tributo pago ao subdesenvolvimento. A enumeração das cifras de incidência deixa bem claro que, quase ignorada nos países altamente civilizados (Suécia 17 , Estados Unidos da América do Norte™. 47 , Canadá 31-46), flagela os povos menos evoluídos da Ásia, África e América. Na Europa, a neurocisticercose predomina nos países eslavos, particularmente URSS 33 > 48 e Polónia 30. 41. Na Inglaterra tem sido assinalada quase exclusivamente em soldados que retornam do ultramar, especialmente da índia 5 ' 2S. Na Alemanha 7-21 e França 22 , sua incidência aumentou após a última guerra, provavelmente pelo relaxamento das exigências higiênicas. Na Espanha foi registrada cerca de uma centena de casos 17-18 ' 29 ' 42. Na África tem sido observada mais freqüentemente na parte oriental, entre os nativos e os brancos; rareia entre os árabes, provavelmente devido a seus hábitos alimentares 6. Na África do Sul foram registrados vários casos de cenurose do sistema nervoso 4. 20. Na Ásia sobressai a Índia 1?. 26 , onde é quase endêmica. É relativamente freqüente na China 11 ' 24 e, após a guerra sino-japonesa, foi assinalada no Japão 17. A América Latina sofre intensamente seus malefícios. As estatísticas existentes apontam para a elevada incidência da moléstia no México 8 > 25. 27 < 28,37(Peru 44 , Chile 2-3 e Brasil, estando a Argentina 12-19 relativamente poupada. São expressivas as referências de Nieto 28 (168 casos descritos no México até 1957) e Lombardo e Mateos 25 (a neurocisticercose representa

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The case of a 10‐year‐old boy with a mild abdominal form of hepatolenticular degeneration, showing clinical, laboratory and histological manifestations of heart involvement is reported. The microscopical examination of myocardial fragments collected by intracavitary puncture biopsy, using hematoxylin‐eosine and the histochemical method with rubeanic acid, showed a medium degree of myocardial damage and the presence of copper deposition in the tissue. Copper concentration on a myocardial biopsy fragment was almost 10 times the normal heart content. Comments are made on the relationship of the clinical, laboratory and pathological findings with the degree of copper storage on the myocardium.

The spinal forms of the cysticercosis of the nervous system are rather rare. It must be emphasized, however, as Henneberg 9 already did, that the incidence of these forms can not be precisely evaluated since the intraspinal structures are not systematically examined in the necropsies; besides, the spinal symptomatology frequently is overlooked or even masked by the outstanding and severe cerebral manifestations. Rocca16 , who has the greater series of cases in this field, remarks that the spinal cord forms are four times rarer than the cerebral ones, this proportion being much alike that of neoplasms. This finding, which concerns the cysticercosis of the nervous system in a general way, could be explained by the difference of nervous mass inside the skull and the spine. Harder to explain is the great disparity between the parenchymatous cysticercosis in the brain and the spinal cord; actually, in a survey of the literature we found only 7 cases of intramedullary cysts, while the extramedullary localization was reported in 35 cases (table 1).The parasite could follow two main routes in his way to the intraspinal space: the subarachnoidal migration, by passive transport in the cerebrospinal fluid current, or the hematogenic route. The first pathway, which would imply in the secondary feature of the spinal localization, could account for the perimedullary meningeal forms, but only the blood route could apparently explain the primary intramedullary localization of the cysticercus.