Neuro 1 Flashcards
Components of neurological examination
- Assessment of awareness/level of consciousness
- Posturing
- Mental Status
- Speech Assessment
- Cranial Nerve Examination
- Cerebellar/Coordination Testing
- Gait Examination
- Motor and Strength Examination
- Reflex Testing
- Sensory Examination
Components of the Mental Status Exam (MSE)
- General appearance, behavior, and attitude
- Level of consciousness and orientation
- Speech and language
- Mood and affect
- Thought process, Content, and Perceptions
- Memory and cognition
- Judgment and insight
What level of consciousness?
- Patient is able to open eyes, look at you, and responds fully and appropriately
Alert
What level of consciousness?
- Patient is drowsy, but can open eyes, look at examiner, and respond. Falls back to sleep easily.
Lethargic
What level of consciousness?
- Patient opens eyes and looks at you, offers confused responses, has lack of interest in environment
Obtunded
What level of consciousness?
- Patient wakens only with painful stimuli. Verbal responses slow or absent. Falls back into unresponsive state when stimuli ceases
Stuporous
What level of consciousness?
- Patient is unarousable to any stimuli
Comatose
What posture is this?
–Upper extremities flexed at the elbows and held closely to the body
–Lower extremities are internally rotated and extended
Decorticate posture
___________
–Thought to occur when the brain stem is not inhibited by the motor function of the cerebral cortex.
Decorticate posture is thought to occur when…..
–Thought to occur when the brain stem is not inhibited by the motor function of the cerebral cortex.
What posture is this?
- Rigid flexion;
- upper arms held tightly to side of body;
- elbows, wrists, and fingers flexed;
- feet are plantar flexed
- legs extended and internally rotated;
- may have fine tremors or intense stiffness
Decorticate
What is the site of lesion for decorticate posture?
corticospinal tracts, above the brainstem
What posture is this?
–Seen in persons with extensive brain stem damage to the pons and lesions that compress the lower thalamus and midbrain
Decerebrate Posture
What posture is this?
- Rigid extension
- arms fully extended
- forearms pronated
- wrists and fingers flexed
- jaws clenched
- neck extended
- back may be arched
- feet plantar flexed
- may occur spontaneously, intermittently, or in response to a stimulus
Decerebrate
What is the site of lesion for the decerebrate position?
brainstem
3 questions of Orientation?
- Name
- Day or date
- Where are we?
Assessing speech and language. You are assessing:
- Talkative or silent?
- Does the patient speak spontaneously or only when directly questioned?
What aspect of speech and language is that?
Quantity
Assessing speech and language. You are assessing:
- Is the speech too fast, too slow, or just right?
What aspect of speech and language is that?
Rate
Assessing speech and language. You are assessing:
- Is the speech too loud, too quiet, or just right?
What aspect of speech and language is that?
Volume
Assessing speech and language. You are assessing:
- Can you understand what the patient is saying physically? If not, why not?
What aspect of speech and language is that?
Articulation
Assessing speech and language. You are assessing:
- Is the rate, flow, melody, and content of speech within normal limits?
What aspect of speech and language is that?
Fluency
Assessing speech and language:
If the rate, flow, melody, and content of speech are not within normal limits, what should you suspect?
If not, suspect an aphasia.
Speech and Language/Fluency
What are you testing?
- Ask patient to follow one or two step command
Word comprehension
Speech and Language/Fluency
What are you testing?
- Ask patient to repeat, “No ifs, ands, or buts”
Repetition
Speech and Language/Fluency
What are you testing?
- Ask patient to name the parts of a watch
Naming
Speech and Language/Fluency
What are you testing?
- Ask patient to read a paragraph out loud
Reading
Speech and Language/Fluency
What are you testing?
- Ask patient to write a sentence
Writing
________ is the external expression of emotion visible to the clinician
Affect
What are you assessing?
•Are the pts responses and body language devoid of emotion?
Affect
What are you assessing?
•Are their responses hyper-emotional?
Affect
What are you assessing?
•Do the pts responses change dramatically through the interview?
Affect
What are you assessing?
•Are the responses appropriate to the patient’s situation or what they are saying?
Affect
What are you assessing?
•Does the pt have poor eye contact?
Affect
Mood tends to alter quickly and spontaneously; unstable. This is called ______
Labile mood
How do you assess the patient’s mood?
To assess mood, you need to ask the patients how they are feeling
Assessment of Thought Process
Identify:
– speech shifts from one topic to another that is not clearly related to the first topic without the patient realizing that the topics are unrelated.
Derailment or loose associations
Assessment of Thought Process
Identify:
•– only partially relevant or irrelevant responses to questioning
Tangentiality
Assessment of Thought Process
Identify:
•– Patient speaks more and more quickly than would be ordinarily expected. Patient gives long answers to brief questions and may not finish one thought before starting another.
Pressured speech
Assessment of Thought Process
Identify:
•– speech makes no sense at all (aka “word salad”)
Incoherence
Assessment of Thought Process
Identify:
•– speech is delayed in reaching goal because of unnecessary detail, however components are properly related
Circumstantiality
Assessment of Thought Process
Identify:
•– During the course of a discussion, pt changes subject in response to something unrelated in the environment.
Distractable speech
Assessment of Thought Process
Identify:
•– persistent repetition of specific words or ideas
Perseveration
Assessment of Thought Process
Identify:
•– word choice doesn’t make any sense because words are chosen based on the sound they make (often rhyming), not their meaning.
Clanging
Assessment of Thought Process
Identify:
•– Fabrication of facts to fill in gaps of memory
Confabulation
Assessment of Thought Content
Identify:
•– Recurrent, uncontrollable thoughts or images that are unwanted and unpleasant to the pt.
Obsessions
Assessment of Thought Content
Identify:
•Repetitive behaviors or mental acts that the pt. feels driven to perform to produce relief or to prevent some future consequence (although that consequence is unlikely)
Compulsions
Assessment of Thought Content
Identify:
•– False, fixed personal beliefs that are not shared by others in the pts community
Delusions
Assessment of Thought Content
Identify:
•– Persistent, irrational fears accompanied by desire to avoid the stimulus
Phobias
Assessment of Thought Content
The below are all examples of _______:
–Persecution
–Grandiosity
–Delusion of being controlled externally
–Somatic delusions
–Jealousy
Delusions
Assessment of Thought Content
Identify:
•– A sense that things in the environment are unreal, strange or remote
Feelings of Unreality