Abstract
Two patients with progressive flaccid and areflexic paraparesis were found, at post mortem examination, to have the Foix-Alajouanine syndrome. The thoracic spinal cord was surrounded by dilated, tortuous and thick-walled venous channels embedded in fibrotic arachnoid. The spinal cord at the midthoracic level and below was severely necrotic. Intramedullary blood vessels frequently showed fibrinoid necrosis and there was proliferation of blood vessels within necrotic parenchyma. Histochemical methods and scanning electron microscopy identified an excess of calcium in the wall of proliferated intramedullary blood vessels and abnormal distribution of phosphorus and sulfur. The etiology of the Foix-Alajouanine syndrome remains unknown but the lesions are probably acquired.
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