An autopsy case of cycloserine poisoning

Cycloserine was given to a 29-year-old girl with pulmonary tuberculosis for 500 days (total dose 250 g). Following this treatment, she began to show several psychiatric and neurologic symptoms and died. Histopathologically, deletion of the nerve cells in the cerebrum was diffusely observed, especially in the IIIrd layer of the frontal and temporal cortex and patchy demyelinations were found in the white matter of the parietal lobe. Characteristic findings were the change of small blood vessels and deletion of the nerve cell around the area of vessels in the hypothalamus, putamen and pallidum. The same changes of the blood vessels were found in the internal capsule. In the cerebellum, shrinkage of Purkinje cells and increase of Bergmann's glia were observed.