An approach using lecithin treatment for olivopontocerebellar atrophies.

A therapeutic trial with two different lecithins, with 32 and 7% phosphatidylcholine respectively, was performed for 3 months on 11 patients with clinical diagnosis of dominant, recessive and sporadic olivopontocerebellar atrophies. The correlation between plasma choline levels and the clinical picture shows a clinical worsening with very high choline levels and a slight improvement with smaller increases of plasma choline levels. The possible role in these disorders of phosphatidylcholine and linoleic acid - both present in lecithin - is discussed, with relationship to these findings.