The pathological systematized study of the brain of 31 cases of the chronic cardiac form of Chagas' disease was undertaken. Elective parenchymatous necrosis was found in 64.5% of cases, mainly in cerebellar Purkinje cells, and in thalamic nuclei. Also found were multiple foci of old micronecrosis (51.6%) mostly in the cerebral cortex, old cerebral infarcts (22.6%), cortical laminar necrosis (16.1%) and cerebral cortical atrophy (3.2%). These findings are not specific and can be explained by thromboembolic phenomena and hypoxemia following from congestive heart failure and disturbances of the cardiac rhythm.

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O pêso m édio dos corações chagásicos (740) foi de 435 ±5,6 g. Já o pêso m édio dos corações chagásicos com e sem I. C. C ., sem "m egas' foi de 479±5,6 g e o pêso m édio dos corações com e sem I. C. C. e com "m egas" foi ãe 314±12,6 g. A análise estatística aplicada dem onstrou h aver diferença significativa e n tre as duas m édias.A hipotrofia constatada nos corações ue indivíduos portadores de "m egas", especialm ente ãe m egaesõfago, está relacionada com o estado de desnutrição e não com a idade.

A post-mortem examined case of herpetic brainstem encephalitis is presented. Clinically, the patient had cephalalgia followed by ataxia, drowsiness and multiple palsies of some cranial nerves, developing into death in eight days. The pathologic examination of the brain showed necrotizing encephalitis in multiple foci limited to the brainstem, more distinctly in the pons and medulla oblongata. The technique of immunoperoxidase revealed rare glial cells with intranuclear immunoreactivity for herpes antigen. Rare viral particles with the morphological characteristics of the herpesvirus were identified in the nuclei of neurons in 10% formol fixed material. This is the second reported case of herpetic brainstem encephalitis confirmed by post-mortem examination. The pathway used by the virus to reach the central nervous system and its posterior dissemination to the oral cavity, the orbitofrontal region and the temporal lobes as well as to the brainstem, after a period of latency and reactivation, are discussed.