[Catecholamines metabolism in extrapyramidal disorders in children]

The author examined the catecholamine metabolism in 78 children with polyetiological extrapyramidal lesions of the nervous system. Most of the cases were with the pallidnigral syndrome. A sharp drop in the catecholamine excretion, especially of the dopamine and DOPA were detected in the akinetico-rigid forms. In torsion muscular deformant dystonia there was the most expressed drop in the DOPA excretion. Under the impact of a pathogenetical treatment by L-DOPA in most of the cases there was an improvement of the clinical state and in the indices of the catecholamine metabolism. A study of the catecholamine metabolism permitted to detect certain aspects in the pathogenesis of different forms of extrapyramidal lesions in children.