CNS - Pitcher Flashcards
CNS includes
Cortex Basal Ganglion Brain Stem Cerebellum Spinal Cord
Neurological Examination
A “top to bottom” approach: the cortex to the brainstem, the cerebellum, the spinal cord, and then peripheral nerves
Neurological Examination Order
- Mental Status Examination (MSE)
- Cranial nerves
- Cerebellum
- Motor
- Sensory
- Deep Tendon Reflexes
Mental Status Exam
- Appearance and Behavior
- Mood/Affect
- Speech/Language
- Thoughts/perceptions
- Cognitive/Executive functions
Appearance and Behavior
- Level of Consciousness: impaired by disease of brainstem reticular system or BOTH hemispheres
- Posture and Motor
- Hygiene
Level of Consciousness
- Alert: Awake, responding appropriate to environment
- Lethargic: awake, but tending to fall asleep if not gently stimulated
- Stuporous: Falling asleep unless vigorously stimulated
- Comatose: sleep like state; patient cannot not be awakened
Mood/Affect
- Observe expression and affect: Appropriate for situation? Engaged? Angry? Anxious? Indifferent? Detached? Fearful?
Language
- Language Exam should include: Spontaneous speech, Naming, Comprehension, Repetition, Reading, Writing
- Evaluate for aphasia = disorder in producing or understanding language
Spontaneous Speech
Look For:
- Articulation
- Appropriate word finding; Paraphasic Errors = substituting similar sounding syllables or words (pen for pencil)
- Normal prosody = the melody or variable tone of speech
- Verbal Fluency - maintain approp rate, flow, volume, content, meaning and melody
- if lacking = check for aphasia
Testing for aphasia
- Ability to name Objects; Anomia = loss of ability to name common objects - true maker of aphasia
- Comprehension - follow commands
- Repetition - repeat simple words/phrase
- Reading and Writing
Aphasia
- Disorder in understanding or producing language - spoken or written
- d/t injury, disease, psychogenic
- d/t locaized lesion in dominant hemisphere of the brain; most common in left hemisphere
- may be the only sign of a new neurological disease (stroke, tumor, head trauma, seizure)
Dysphasia
Impairment in the use of Speech - failure to arrange words properly in a sentence
Dysarthria
Imperfect articulation due to lack of motor coordination; damaging event to CNS or PNS; Language comprehension and use may be fine
Wernicke’s Area
- Transforms sensory input into neural word representation to give a word meaning
- Damage to Wernicke, Broca or their interconnections cause aphasia
Broca’s Area
- Transforms neural word representations (from Wernicke’s) into actual articulations that can be spoken
- Damage to Wernicke, Broca or their interconnections cause aphasia
Brocas Aphasia
- “Expressive” aphasia
- Understanding of spoken language in mostly preserved
Wernicke’s Aphasia
- “Receptive” aphasia
- Fluent speech that makes no sense
Apraxia
= Inability to turn verbal request into motor performance
- associated with aphasia
- pts have difficulty with complex but familiar activities (ex writing with a pen)
Thoughts and Perception
- Process - assess logic, relevence and organizations. Are they coherent?
- Content - phobias, anxieties, obsessions, delusions, hallucinations
- Insight - the ability to understand their own problem
- Judgment - approp decisions/actions for situation
Cognitive Function
- Orientation: person, place, time
- Attention: ability to concentrate
- Memory: recent and remote
Executive Function
- Abstract thinking/insight
- Calculation
- Constructional ability
Orientation
- Person - usually only lost with aphasia or schizophrenia
- Place - lost in delirious/extremely demented outpatients
- Time - Most commonly lost of the three; day, time, week, month, year