ABSTRACT
Although peripheral neuropathy is a fairly common finding in chronic arsenic poisoning, little is known about the acute effects of this metal on peripheral nerves. This report shows clinical and electrophysiological findings in a patient who developed peripheral neuropathy only three days after a high-dose ingestion of this metal due to a failed suicide attempt. We speculate that peripheral nerves and some cranial nerves can show not only clinical but also subclinical involvement that can only be detected by neurophysiological studies.
Subject(s)
Arsenic Poisoning , Peripheral Nervous System Diseases/chemically induced , Acute Disease , Adult , Electromyography , Female , Humans , Neural Conduction , Peripheral Nervous System Diseases/diagnosis , Peripheral Nervous System Diseases/physiopathology , Suicide, AttemptedABSTRACT
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is one of a small group of the so-called spongiform encephalopathies. It is a rare transmissible disorder which is characterized by progressive and irreversible neurological damage. There are few reports where clinical manifestations are correlated with neurophysiologic and histopathologic findings. The present paper includes three cases of CJD where alterations in evoked potentials and brain mapping studies gave valuable information, especially in those where the clinical picture and the electroencephalogram were non-specific, we conclude that these alterations suggest that the classic histopathological changes in C-J disease involves both cortical and subcortical structures.
Subject(s)
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome , Biopsy , Brain/pathology , Brain/physiopathology , Brain Mapping , Cerebral Cortex/pathology , Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome/pathology , Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome/physiopathology , Electroencephalography , Evoked Potentials, Auditory , Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory , Evoked Potentials, Visual , Female , Humans , Middle AgedABSTRACT
Wernicke's encephalopathy is a disease that when not diagnosed in time, can lead to severe CNS damage and death. It is characterized by specific clinical and radiologic findings; however, there are few reports dealing with the usefulness of neurophysiologic studies in this syndrome. We present a patient with Wernicke's encephalopathy, diagnosed postmortem on autopsy, in whom the neurophysiologic studies showed abnormalities in all the different pathways tested. This suggests that EEG and evoked potentials may be useful tools in the diagnostic workup of this entity. We propose performing these tests when this syndrome is being considered.
