Cavum septi pellucidi аs a marker of the neuropsychiatric diseases: A pointer or mislead? A cadaveric clinical observation

2^nd International Conference on Forensic Research and Technology

October 07-09, 2013 Hampton Inn Tropicana, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Branislav Filipovic

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Forensic Res

Abstract :

Cavum septi pellucid (CSP), a cavity between the laminae of the septum pellucidum, for a longer period has been reported as an anomaly of the brain midline, associated with neuropsychiatric diseases, mostly schizophrenia, but also posttraumatic stress disorder, De la Tourette disease, and persons who survived a repeated and serious head trauma, boxers on the first place. Material and Methods: Our investigation has been performed on 479 unfixed frozen brains, of the individuals of both genders, autopsied in the Institute for Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine, Belgrade. Results: In our sample, we have revealed 110 cava septi pellucid, among which 25 suffered from schizophrenia, 25 were alcoholics and 20 survived serious head blows, all the other could be considered as normal. On the other hand, among 369 CSP negative persons, 337 were normal by current standards, five had a positive heteroanamnesis about schizophrenia, 12 were alcoholics and 15 survived a serious head blow (chi square=159.048, degrees of freedom=3, p=0.000). The cause of the death among schizophrenia suffering persons was suicide (18 out of 25 patients), but no ritual or unusual ways of suicide committing has been out lined. On the other side, in our clinical practice, we faced occasional appearance of one large CSP in a patient with PTSD and a smaller one among person with De la Tourette disease. Conclusion: Obviously, CSP is more frequently associated with neuropsychiatric diseases, but a dilemma still exists, did we make a bias in brain suitability for the examination or we did the same mistake in observing clinical cases. A large CSP, though, is an almost certain sign for an underlying neuropsychiaric impairment, especially schizophrenia. The CSP among alcoholics and persons with the priory sustained head blows is probably of the same cause and are the part of the encepahlopathia pugillistica, the aftermath of repeated headblows.