Neurology Flashcards
What is the difference between the pyramidal and extrapyramidal tracts?
Pyramidal: conscious control of muscles from the cerebral cortex to the muscles of the body and face
Extrapyramidal: originate in the brainstem and control involuntary, reflexive and responsive control of muscle fibres eg balance, posture
What are the signs of pyramidal issues?
Hypertonia
Hyperreflexia
Clonus
Babinski sign
What are the signs of extrapyramidal issues? (4/6)
Tremors
Spasms
Impairment of voluntary movements
Decline in cognitive function
Depression
Postural alterations
What are the causes of damage to the extrapyramidal tracts?
Parkinson’s
Huntington’s
Progressive supranuclear palsy
What are the 3 key symptoms of normal pressure hydrocephalus?
Gait instability
Urinary incontinence
Mild dementia
What are the symptoms of parietal lobe lesions?
Sensory inattention
Apraxias
Astereognosis (inability to identify objects by handling them)
Inferior homonymous quadrantanopia
Gerstmann’s syndrome
What is Gerstmann’s syndrome?
Lesion of dominant parietal:
Alexia (inability to understand written language)
Acalculia
Finger agnosia
Right-left disorientation
What are the symptoms of occipital lobe lesions?
Homonymous hemianopia with macula sparing
Cortical blindness
Visual agnosia
What are the symptoms of a temporal lobe lesion?
Wernicke’s aphasia - causes word substitution, neologisms etc
Superior homonymous quadrantanopia
Auditory agnosia
Prosopagnosia
What are the symptoms of frontal lobe lesions?
Broca’s aphasia
Disinhibition
Perseveration (cannot switch ideas appropriately in response to change in stimuli etc)
Anosmia
Inability to generate a list
What are the symptoms of a midline cerebellar lesion?
Gait and truncal ataxia
Where does the spinal cord end?
L1
Where should you do a lumber puncture
level L3/4
What do the oligodendroglia do?
Produce myelin sheath in CNS
(Affected in MS)
What do Schwann cells do?
Produce myelin sheath in the PNS
(Affected in Guillain-Barre, also the cell type in acoustic neuromas)
What do astrocytes do?
Provides physical support
Removes excess potassium ions
Helps for blood-brain barrier
Physical repair
What do microglia do?
Specialised CNS phagocytes
What do ependymal cells do?
Provide inner lining of the ventricles
If the left hypoglossal nerve was damaged, which was would the tongue deviate?
To the left
Which nerve innervates the muscles of mastication?
Trigeminal
Which way does the uvula deviate in vagus nerve lesion?
Away from side of lesion
Which nerve is involved in a hypersensitive carotid sinus reflex?
Glossopharyngeal
