A case-control study on risk factors for cerebral tumors was conducted on an adult Italian population by the four Neurosurgical Departments of the Veneto Region, i.e. Padua, Treviso, Verona and Vicenza. The study recruited 195 cases of histologically-confirmed cerebral glioma. One hospital control was selected for each case. Cases and controls were matched for age, sex, data of hospitalization and residence. Information on both cases and controls was obtained from a relative. Uninvolved interviewers administered a structured questionnaire including items on the subject's education, occupation, lifestyle, medical history, exposure to radiation for diagnosis or therapy, head trauma and blood group and the medical history of family members. The series of cerebral tumors was first considered as an indistinct set: none of the risk factors examined showed a statistically significant association. A positive association was found with blood group A (OR = 6) when low-grade astrocytomas (n = 41) were considered separately. As for the malignant astrocytomas (n = 132), there was a suggestive but not statistically significant association with the presence of CNS tumors among first- and second-degree relatives (OR = 7.0). On the whole, this study yielded no clear and meaningful association for the various risk factors analyzed.

To test the hypothesis of opiate-like peptide release after transcutaneous electrotherapy we measured beta-endorphin cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) content in 13 patients without pain problems. The results indicate a time dependent increase of CSF beta-endorphin in the group of patients studied. This fact suggests that the analgesic properties of the treatment may be ascribed to an involvement of the endogenous opiates system, independently from the basal clinical conditions of the patients.

Frozen sections of 21 gliomas were analysed to characterize inflammatory infiltrating cells, HLA-DR antigen expression and cytokine secretion. Mononuclear cells infiltrating the tumours were mostly macrophages, which were detected in 100% of cases, and expressed HLA-DR antigens. Lymphocytes were less frequently seen and expressed the CD8 phenotype. Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) and Interleukin-6 (IL-6), two cytokines mainly produced by activated cells of the macrophage lineage, were demonstrated especially in neoplastic astrocytes. IL-1 beta immunoreactivity was detected in all tumours, and was prevalent in more anaplastic gliomas; IL-6 was found in anaplastic gliomas and in glioblastomas. IL-1 receptors were expressed by both infiltrating macrophages and neoplastic astrocytes in the gliomas analysed. These findings suggest that cytokine production in gliomas seems not related to immune reactions against the tumour and their synthesis by anaplastic astrocytes could follow an unregulated activation of many metabolic processes after neoplastic transformation.

The material studied consists of 10 cases of intracranial saccular aneurysms. Four came from autopsies, and in each of the other six aneurysmal wall was obtained at surgery after clipping of the aneurysm. The most significant findings from this pathological study are the almost complete disappearance of the internal elastic lamina at the level of the aneurysmal neck, sclerosis of the muscle coat, and in satellite vessels and vasa vasorum disruption of the internal elastic lamina and partial luminal occlusion. The importance of ischaemic changes in the aneurysmal wall is discussed. Rupture of the aneurysm at the distal extremity of the sac depends probably on the progressive brittleness of its wall which becomes sclerotic and less resistant to the blood pressure within. Splitting or rupture of the aneurysm appears to be dependent on degenerative ischaemic alterations in its wall.

Two cases of pituitary abscess are reported. Bacteriological and histological findings of both cases are discussed, together with data available from the literature.