[A comparative study of EEG in patients with neurological and myxedematous cretinism]

A comparative study of EEG between neurological and myxedematous cretins was carried out in a total of 61 cases. The results were as follows: (1) The changes of EEG in myxedematous cretins appeared to be more obvious than those in neurological cretins; (2) The degree of mental retardation in cretins was not parallel to the degree of the abnormality of EEG; (3) with thyroid therapy, EEG in cretins was improved. The improvement rate in myxedematous cretins was higher than that in neurological cretins; (4) Brain CT scan was carried out in 50 cases of those cretins. It was found that the abnormality of certain intracerebral structure in myxedematous cretins appeared to be more obvious than that in neurological cretins. The change of EEG appeared in the same way as well. This is in contradiction to the traditional knowledge that the defect of neurological system in neurological cretinism was more severe than that in myxedematous cretinism. The current classification of cretins into neurological and myxedematous cretins does not reflect the changes of pathophysiology properly.