Clinical Conditions Flashcards
What is meningitis?
- Meningitis is the inflammation of the leptomeninges, with/without septicaemia
- Prompt diagnosis and treatment is life saving
What is status epilepticus?
Status epilepticus are epileptic seizures occurring continuously without recovery of consciousness in between (generalised seizure – medical emergency)
What is sleep apnoea?
Sleep apnoea is a serious sleep disorder that occurs when a person’s breathing is interrupted during sleep
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness or unease about something with an uncertain outcome
What is an obsession?
An obsession is a thought that persists and dominates an individual’s thinking despite their awareness that the thought is either entirely without purpose, or has persisted and dominated their thinking beyond the point of relevance or usefulness
What is epilepsy?
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder marked by sudden recurrent episodes of sensory disturbance, LOC or convulsions, associated with abnormal electrical activity in the brain
What is hebephrenic schizophrenia?
Hebephrenic schizophrenia is a form of schizophrenia wherein there is definite and sustained flattening or shallowness of affect or incongruity/inappropriateness of affect, aimless and disjointed behaviour or thought disorder affecting speech
What is an aneurysm?
- An aneurysm is a dilation of an artery, which is greater than 50% of the normal diameter
- They are most likely to occur to occur in the vessels contributing to the Circle of Willis
What is simple schizophrenia?
- Simple schizophrenia is a form of shizophrenia wherein the patient experiences a loss of drive and interest, aimlessness, idleness, self absorbed attitude and social withdrawal
- No hallucinations/delusions
What is drug induced psychosis?
Drug induced psychosis is a form of psychosis induced by a psychoactive substance
What is a diffuse axonal injury>
A diffuse axonal injury is the shearing of the interface between grey and white matter following traumatic acceleration/deceleration or rotational injuries to the brain damaging the intra- cerebral axons and dendritic connections
What is anencephaly?
- Anencephaly is a neural tube defect resulting in the absence of cranial structures, including the brain
- It results from the failure of neural tube closure cranially and is incompatible with life
What is brain death
Brain death is widespread cortical and brainstem damage (flat EEG)
What is bitemporal hemianopia?
- Bitemporal hemianopia is a form of anopia caused by a lesion at the optic chiasm
- It affects both nasal fibres, and thus, both temporal fields lost
What is narcolepsy?
- Narcolepsy is a long-term neurological disorder that involves a decreased ability to regulate sleep-wake cycles
- It is characterised by excessive sleepiness, sleep paralysis, hallucinations
What is stroke syndrome?
Stroke syndrome is the constellation of signs and symptoms produced due to occlusion or damage of an artery supplying part of the brain
What is hemiballismus?
- Hemiballismus is a rare movement disorder associated with dysfunctional contralateral subthalamic nuclei damage
- It results in unilateral abnormal movement and is often secondary to sub-cortical stroke
What are convulsions?
Convulsions are uncontrolled shaking movements of the body due to rapid and repeated contraction and relaxation of muscles
What is monocular blindness?
- Monocular blindness is a condition caused by a lesion of the optic nerve
- It is often due to an optic nerve glioma or retinoblastoma in children and due to an optic sheath meningioma in middle aged adults
What is encephalitis?
- Encephalitis is the classically viral inflammation of the brain parenchyma due to infection
- Neuronal cell death by virus occurs, with the inclusion bodies
What is Parkinson’s disease?
- Parkinson’s disease is a chronic, progressive movement disorder characterised by a triad of bradykinesia, tremor and rigidity
- It is caused by the degeneration of the substantia nigra causes deficiency of dopamine
What is a hallucination?
- A hallucination is a perception without a stimulus
- It can be in any sensory modality (visual hallucinations are organic)
What is a delusion?
A delusion is an abnormal belief, outside of cultural norms (unshakeable)
What is psychosis?
- Psychosis is the presence of hallucinations or delusions
- It describes symptoms, not a diagnosis in itself
What is a subarachnoid haemorrhage?
- A subarachnoid haemorrhage is a collection of blood between arachnoid mater and the pia mater
- Vast majority of SAH occurs spontaneously, secondary to ruptured berry aneurysm (may also be traumatic)
What is a quadrantopia?
A quadrantanopia is an anopia affecting a quarter of the field of vision, associated with a lesion of an optic radiation
What is a basilar skull fracture?
A basilar skull fracture is a bony fracture within the base of skull (temporal, occipital, sphenoid or ethmoid bone)
What is a TIA?
A transient ischaemic attack is a stroke that recovers within 24 hours from the onset of symptoms
What is post-traumatic stress disorder?
- Post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events
- It occurs within 6 months of a traumatic event of exceptional severity
What is idiopathic intracranial hypertension?
- Idiopathic intracranial hypertension is raised intracranial pressure without evidence of hydrocephalus or mass lesion
- This usually occurs in oobese young women after weight gain
What is paranoid schizophrenia?
Paranoid schizophrenia is a form of schizophrenia wherein the patient experiences prominent delusions or hallucinations
What is a subdural haemorrhage?
- A subdural haemorrhage is the collection of blood between meningeal dura mater and the arachnoid mater
- Bleeding occurs due to shearing forces on cortical bridging veins
What is an uncal herniation?
An uncal herniation is when the uncus, the medial part of the temporal lobe, is displaced across the tentorial opening
What is Wernicke’s aphasia (aka receptive aphasia)?
Wernicke’s aphasia is form of aphasia wherein the ability to grasp the meaning of spoken words and sentences is impaired, while the ease of producing connected speech is not very affected
What is a seizure?
A seizure is a sudden irregular discharge of electrical activity in the brain causing a physical manifestation such as sensory disturbance, unconsciousness or convulsions
What is spina bifida?
- Spina bifida is a type of neural tube defect occurring when the vertebrae don’t form properly around part of the baby’s spinal cord
- It arises from the failure of neural tube closure caudally
What is locked in syndrome?
- Locked-in syndrome is a condition that can be caused by basilar/pontine artery occlusion
- Eye movements can be preserved, but all other somatic motor functions lost from the pons down
What is spinal shock?
- Spinal shock is a phenomenon that occurs in the days immediately following a UMN lesion
- Initially there is flaccid paralysis with areflexia, following by hypertonia and thereafter hyperreflexia
What is hydrocephalus?
- Hydrocephalus is a condition characterised by excessive accumulation of fluid in the brain
- Is is most common in newborns with spina bifida occur due to a blockage of the ventricular system e.g. tumour, infection
What is PANDAS?
Paediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcal infection is a hypothesis that children develop OCD / tic disorders due to group A beta-hemolytic streptococcal infections
What is a coma?
- A coma is a disorder of consciousness due to widespread brainstem and cortical damage, with various (disordered) EEG patterns detectable
- The patient is unarousable and unresponsive to psychologically meaningful stimuli
- No sleep-wake cycle detectable
What is a concussion?
A concussion is a head injury with a temporary loss of brain function
What is hemispatial neglect?
- Hemispatial neglect is a neuropsychological condition occurring due to damage to one hemisphere of the brain
- There is a deficit in attention to/awareness of one side of the visual field and the patient is unable to process and perceive stimuli on one side of the body or environment
What is right homonomous hemianopia?
- Right homonomous hemianopia is a form of anopia caused by a lesion of the left optic tract
- It affects the left temporal and right nasal fibres
What is a compulsion>
A compulsion is an obsessional motor acts which may result from an obsessional impulse that leads directly to the action, or they may be mediated by an obsessional mental image or fear
E.g. I need to turn the light switch on and off ten times or my family will die
What is a stroke?
A stroke is the damaging/killing of brain cells starved of O2 as a result of blood supply to part of the brain being cut off
What is rachischisis?
Rachischisis is a neural tube defect occuring due to the failure of neural fold elevation
What is left homonomous hemianopia?
- Left homonomous hemianopia is a form of anopia caused by a lesion of the right optic tract
- It affects the right temporal and left nasal fibres
What is Broca’s aphasia (aka expressive aphasia)?
- Broca’s aphasia is a form of aphasia wherein a patient has trouble speaking fluently but their comprehension can be relatively preserved
- Patients have difficulty producing grammatical sentences and their speech is limited mainly to short utterances of less than four words
What is Huntington’s disease?
- Huntington’s disease is an autosomal dominant, progressive neurodegenerative disorder associated with cell loss within the basal ganglia and cortex
- The onset of disease is around 30-50 years
What is dementia?
Dementia is the progressive decline in higher cortical function leading to a global impairment of memory, intellect and personality which effects the individuals ability to cope with activities of daily living
What is an extradural haemorrhage?
- An extradural haemorrhage is the collection of blood between inner surface of the skull and the periosteal dura mater
- It is nearly always secondary to trauma and/or skull fracture and most commonly occurs due to a severed middle meningeal artery
What is an aura?
An aura is a perceptual disturbance experienced by some prior to a seizure e.g. strange light, unpleasant smell, confusing thoughts
What is undifferentiated schizophrenia?
Undifferentiated schizophrenia is a form of schizophrenia wherein there are insufficient symptoms to meet criteria of any subtypes or so many symptoms fit more than one criteria
What is insomnia
Insomnia is a sleep disorder where people have trouble sleeping and is often due to psychiatric/psychological causes
What is a spinal cord infarction?
- A spinal cord infarction (aka spinal stroke) refers to the death of nervous tissue, which results from an interruption of the arterial supply
- Clinical signs include muscle weakness, paralysis and loss of reflexes
What is a cerebral contusion?
A cerebral contusion is the bruising of the brain whereby blood mixes with cortical tissue due to microhaemorrhages and small blood vessel leaks
What is PVS?
- PVS is a disorder of conscious due to widespread cortical damage, with various (disordered) EEG patterns detectable
- Similar to coma but with some spontaneous eye opening, can also localise to stimuli via brainstem reflexes.
- Sleep-wake cycle detectable
What is a tonsillar herniation?
A tonsillar herniation is when the cerebellar tonsils herniate through the foramen magnum
