Neurology Flashcards
What is an fmri?
What is it used for?
Areas of the body its used for?
Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow.
This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area of the brain is in use, blood flow to that region also increases.
Brain and spinal cord
What are the presentations in Brown sequard syndrome
Apaz this condition comes up in MCQs
Name some Metabolic causes of coma
Drug overdose Hypoglycaemia Diabetes “The failures" HYPERCALCAEMIA
Name some ‘Diffuse intracranial’ causes of coma
Head injury Meningitis SAH Encephalitis Epilepsy
Name some hemisphere lesions that can cause coma
Cerebral infarct Cerebral haemorrhage Subdural Extradural Abscess Tumour
Name some processes that can affect the brainstem to cause haemorrhage?
Brainstem infarct Tumour Abscess Cerebellar haemorrhage Cerebellar infarct
Name 3 alterations of the conscious state?
Explain what they are briefly.
Which part of the CNS are affected in each of these?
- Locked in syndrome;
Aka pseudocoma, is a condition in which a patient is aware but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body except for vertical eye movements and blinking.
- Damage is to the Ventral PONS - Vegetative state
Where patients have wakefulness/ partial arousal but no awareness.
- Damage to cortex and hemisphere (severe brain damage) - Brain stem death;
Is when a person no longer has any brain stem functions, and has permanently lost the potential for consciousness and the capacity to breathe. When this happens, a ventilator keeps the person’s heart beating and oxygen circulating through their bloodstream
Define a coma
Coma is a state of unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened; fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound; lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle; and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as being comatose.
They lack awareness and rousability.
What is a seizure
A paradoxical discharge of cerebral neurons
which is apparent to an external observer (i.e. you can see the external manifestatoins)
or as an abnormal perceptual experience by the subject.
What is epilepsy?
A RECURRING tendency to have seizures
Difference between a partial and complex partial seizure?
Consciousness is normal/ not impaired in the former.
Dont forget to do the self assessments on the E-lectures
okay
What motor function would you see in;
Comatose patients
Vegetative state
Minimally conscious state
Locked in syndrome
Comatose patients may have reflex and postural responses only,
patients in a vegetative state may produce non-purposeful movements and withdraw to noxious stimuli,
patients in a minimally conscious state may reach for objects and localise noxious stimuli and those with
locked in syndrome are quadriplegic.
What do these seizures involve breifly;
simple partial
complex partial
absence
tonic-clonic
Simple partial seizures do not show a loss of consciousness and have localised sensory or motor symptoms.
Complex partial may have strange symptoms such as deja-vu.
Absence seizures are characterised by vacant expressions and can be confused with plain inattentiveness.
Tonic clonic seizures are the more violent seizures with shaking.
Whats is the difference between a prodrome and aura?
What can they tell in in terms of seizures?
An aura may help to localise a seizure within the brain but it precedes and marks the onset of an attack. Additionally, a prodrome refers to behavioural or mood changes which may precede an attack by many hours.
