Plasma and erythrocyte magnesium in Huntington's chorea.

Huntington's chorea: a centenary review

“…The authors of these papers and others described the beneficial effects of chelating agents but subsequent publications denied them. Copper, iron, calcium, magnesium and strontium have all been involved in one part or the other of this double process, and there is now no convincing evidence for a disorder of any of these substances (Neilson & Butt, 1955;Kenyon & Hardy, 1963;Haslam, 1967;Fleming, Baker & Stewart, 1967;Bruyn, Mink & Calfe, 1965;Perry, 1961;Courville, Nusbaum & Butt, 1963). McMenemy (1961) speculated that an autoimmune disorder might be present in this and other diseases in which large numbers of nerve cells die and abnormalities of gamma globulins in the serum were described by Bruyn & Lequin (1964) and Cowie & Gammack (1966), but these were thought to be non-specific by Maughan & Williams (1966); and Cowie (1969) was unable to confirm her previous findings.…”