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Abstract:
Post-mortem morphological, histochemical, and morphometric investigations of the adrenals in 46 deceased patients who suffered from meningococcemia with and without lesions of the meninges were carried out. The control group was composed of 7 practically healthy persons who had perished suddenly as a result of craniocerebral trauma. It was shown that the adrenals might often be seriously damaged in meningococcemia without clinical and morphological signs of meningitis. Hemodynamic disorders, in particular, involvement of the vessels of the microcirculatory bed, contributed considerably to the lesions of the adrenals. However, even in meningococcemia free from signs of meningitis, in a number of cases individual areas of the cortex retained a high functional activity. In meningococcemia combined with lesions of the meninges, despite considerable damage of the cortical layer, in the majority of cases there were evidences of the tense functioning of the adrenal cells.