Clinical analysis of 10 patients with paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the clinical features of paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity (PSH).Methods The clinical data,imaging and electroencephalography (EEG) of 10 patients with PSH was analyzed retrospectively.Results Of the 10 patients with PSH,9 were males and 1 was a female.The overall age of all the patients was (37.6 ± 19.1) years,ranging from 15 to 78 years.The primary diseases included traumatic brain injury 5 cases,intracranial hemorrhage 1 case,cerebral infarction 1 case,hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy 1 case,arachnoid cyst 1 case and cryptococcal meningoencephalitis 1 case.All patients developed at least 5 of 7 features which contained paroxysmal agitation,hyperthemia,diaphoresis,tachypnea,tachycardia,hypertension and dystonia.PSH occurred within 24 hours after brain injury in 3 patients; 24 hours to 3 weeks in 5 patients ; 5 months in 1 patient; 9 years in 1 patient.The frequency varied from one time in several days to several times in one day.The duration varied from 1 minute to 3 hours.The episodes in 4 patients occurred more often at night,1 around palinesthesia and the frequency of other 5 patients showed no differences between day and night.There were 2 cases appeared sober-minded,and the states of consciousness of the other 8 cases were hard to judge during PSH.The Glasgow Coma Scale scores of 8 cases were 3 to 8 points and the other 2 cases were 15 points.No epileptic-form activity was detected by EEG and no particular lesions were responsible.Neuro-imaging examinations suggested frontal lobe,temporal lobe,parietal lobe,occipital lobe,basal ganglion,pons and lateral ventricle were damaged.And 9 patients received an ineffective antiepileptic drug treatment.The efficacy in the management of PSH with dopamine agonists combining with β-blockers was observed.Two patients achieved complete remission,6 patients had a reduction in episode frequency,1 patient showed no response to the therapy and 1 patient discharged and could not be connected.Conclusions PSH can occur after various types and different degrees of brain injury.PSH is often misdiagnosed as epilepsy,and anticonvulsant therapies are useless.PSH receives good responses to β-blockers and dopamine agonists.