Neuro exam abnormal Flashcards
Altered mental status stage: sleppy but will open eyes and respond before falling back to sleep
lethargy
Altered mental status stage: harder to arose with verbal stimuli; may need to shake patient; responses are slower and tend to be confused
Obtundation
Altered mental status stage: often need painful stimuli (voice and shaking ineffective) to arouse patient; lapse into unresponsiveness when stimuli cease
stupor
Altered mental status stage: no response to verbal or painful stimuli; unarousable
coma
dysarthria
problem with motor speech or articulation
dysphonia
(weak) breathy voice
Broca’s (expressive) aphasia
- comprehension intact
- unable to speak to varying degrees
Wernicke’s (receptive) aphasia
- comprehension not intact
- fluent, but nonsensical speech
global aphasia
combination of receptive and expressive aphasia
apraxia
inability to perform a learned motor act
agnosia
- inability to recongize sensory stimuli
**associated with large parieto-occipital-posterior temporal lesion
clinical presentation
- acute onset
- duration: hours-weeks
- alertness: abnormally high or low
- orientation: impaired for time
- memory: recent and immediate impaired
- speech: incoherent
- perception: visual illusions and hallucination
delirium
impaired attention and incoherent thought
confusion
pyshomotor disturbances seen in schizoprenia characterized by periods of either muscular rigidity, excitement, or stupor
cataonia
glascow coma scale: eye opening
- none
- to pain
- to voice
- spontaneous
glascow coma scale: motor response
- none
- extensor posturing
- flexor posturing
- withdraws to pain
- localizes to pain
- obeys commands
glascow coma scale: verbal response
- none
- makes incomprehensible sounds
- uses inappropriate words
- conversant and disoriented
- conversant and oriented
type of coma: patients “act awake,” usually following a deep coma. eyes are open, they may cough, yawn, and swallow and meaninglessly use thier extremities, but still essentially brain dead
coma vigil
decorticate posturing
flexion with adduction of arms and extension of legs
- reflects destructive lesion in corticospinal tract from cortex to upper midbrain
Decerebrate posturing
extension, adduction, and internal rotation of the arms and extension of the legs
- associated with damage to corticospinal tract at levels of pons or upper medulla
What are the three common sites of hernation due to increased intracranial pressure
- under falx
- through tentorium
- foramen magnum
signs of third nerve palsy
- unilateral, fixed, and dilated pupil with ptosis
*seen with uncal herniation or aneursym compressing CNIII
This pupillary response is associated with what condition:
- midposition (2-5 mm) and fixed
midbrain lesion
This pupillary response is associated with what condition: pinpoint and reactive
Pontine lesion
This pupillary response is associated with what condition:
- unilateral dilated and fixed
CNIII lesion/uncal herniation
This pupillary response is associated with what condition:
- bilateral dilated and fixed
central herniation, hypoxia
Oculocephalic reflex (doll’s eyes)
- hold eyes open and rotate head side to side
- if intact, eyes roll to side opposite of head movement
- if eyes remain fixed and move in the same direction of the head movement, suggests lesion in midbrain or pons (CN III- CN VIII) lesion: “doll’s eyes absent”
vestibulocochlear reflex
- hold head at 30 degrees; lavage ear with ice-cold water (30-60cc)
-
normal response is tonic (slow) toward ear (stimulus); fast nystagmus away
- COWS
- cold water opposite
- warm water same
- if impaired response, suggests brainstem lesion (CN III-CN VI)
- COWS
metabolic encephalopathy or bihemispheric lesions present with what respiratory patterns in coma
cheyne-stokes
metabolic acidosis or hernation present with what respiratory patterns in coma
Hyperventilation (Kussmaul’s)