ABSTRACT
The authenticity of Charcot's original descriptions of hysteria has been questioned in the popular media. None the less, it is still possible to encounter florid forms of hysteria in culturally deprived communities, and to answer Charcot's present day critics we present a selection of patients from Kentucky's Appalachian countries with hysterial neurological disease. Their case histories are contrasted with those Charcot himself described and thereby form a modern commentary on such conditions as la grande hystérie, hysteroepilepsy, hysterotraumatic monoplegia, and hysterical hemianaesthesia.
Subject(s)
Hysteria/diagnosis , Adolescent , Adult , Conversion Disorder/diagnosis , Female , Gait , History, 19th Century , Humans , Hysteria/complications , Hysteria/history , Male , Middle Aged , Paralysis/complicationsABSTRACT
Findings in a case of neonatal tetany in a child whose mother had elevated blood parathyroid hormone levels because of a parathyroid adenoma are given. The child was found to have hypocalcemia, hypomagnesemia, and hyperphosphatemia. Parathyroid hormone in the infant was found to be elevated. It has been postulated that the pathophysiologic mechanism of the hypocalcemia in this syndrome is transient hypoparathyroidism. The present case suggests a different mechanism: hypomagnesemia and end-organ refractoriness to parathyroid hormone, a state analogous to pseudohypoparathyroidism.
Subject(s)
Hyperparathyroidism/complications , Hypocalcemia/etiology , Infant, Newborn, Diseases/etiology , Magnesium/blood , Maternal-Fetal Exchange , Parathyroid Hormone/blood , Pregnancy Complications , Adenoma/complications , Female , Humans , Hypoparathyroidism/physiopathology , Infant, Newborn , Parathyroid Neoplasms/complications , Pregnancy , Tetany/etiology , Time FactorsABSTRACT
A 16-mo-old girl is described with acute hemiplegia associated with virologic and serologic evidence of Coxsackie A9 infection. Possibilities of pathogenesis are discussed. It is suggested that the present hemiplegia may have been the result of a focal vasculitis due to Coxsachie A9 viral infection in the region of the middle cerebral artery.
