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Jan Bert Gramsbergen; Lammy Veenma-Van der Duin; Kor Venema; Jakob Korf, PhD

Arch Neurol. 1986;43(12):1276-1281.

Abstract
• The cations, calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium, putative amino acid transmitters, and total protein contents were assessed in the frontal cortex, putamen, and substantia nigra of Huntington's disease (HD) patients and agematched nonneurologic control subjects. In the HD frontal cortex and HD substantia nigra, only small increases in sodium levels and decreases in potassium levels were observed, but in the HD putamen there were major cation shifts, suggesting a twofold increase of the extracellular space. In all three brain areas that were investigated, potassium was positively correlated with -aminobutyric acid and in the putamen sodium was negatively correlated with the amino acid. These correlations suggest loss of -aminobutyric acidergic neurons or nerve terminals in these areas. The elevation of sodium in the HD basal ganglia may be visualized in vivo by nuclear magnetic resonance of sodium.

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Biological Psychiatry, Psychiatric University Clinic, Groningen, the Netherlands.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication June 29, 1986.

Reprint requests to Department of Biological Psychiatry, Psychiatric University Clinic, Oostersingel 59, 9713 EZ Groningen, the Netherlands (Mr Gramsbergen).

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