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Refining the Neurological History
1. REFINING THE NEUROLOGICAL
HISTORY
Randy M. Rosenberg, MD FAAN FACP
Randy M. Rosenberg, MD FAAN FACP
Chief, Division of Neurology
Chief, Division of Neurology
Aria Health
Aria Health
Clinical Assistant (Adjunct) Professor of Neurology
Clinical Assistant (Adjunct) Professor of Neurology
Temple University School of Medicine
Temple University School of Medicine
There is still much GLORY in the STORY
2. Sir William Osler
1849-1919
1872 MD Degree from
Magill and later Professor
of Medicine
1884 Chairman of Clinical
Medicine University of
Pennsylvania
1888 Professor and Chief
of Medicine Johns Hopkins
1905 Regius Chair of
Medicine Oxford University
3. Quotable Sir William Osler
"If you listen carefully to the patient they will tell you the
diagnosis“
"Variability is the law of life, and as no two faces are the
same, so no two bodies are alike, and no two individuals
react alike and behave alike under the abnormal
conditions which we know as disease.“
“Observe, record, tabulate, communicate. Use your five
senses. Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to feel, learn
to smell, and know that by practice alone you can
become expert.”
6. What Is The Inherant Distinction Of The
Neurological History?
The neurological history should be a focused, goal
directed exercise that answers the following questions:
Where in the nervous system is the lesion?
What is the pathological process (e.g. inflammatory,
vascular, infectious)?
Is this a purely neurological problem or a neurological
manifestation of a systemic disease?
7. Why Is the Neurological History Still
Relevant?
•• Safest and most cost effective
Safest and most cost effective
DIAGNOSTIC MODALITY available
DIAGNOSTIC MODALITY available
•• The most direct method to cultivate trust
The most direct method to cultivate trust
and a sound doctor-patient relationship
and a sound doctor-patient relationship
•• For some people there is a very thin line
For some people there is a very thin line
between the laying of hands and assault and
between the laying of hands and assault and
battery.
battery.
•• False negative MRI or “When all else
False negative MRI or “When all else
fails take a history!”
fails take a history!”
9. NONSENSE DIAGNOSIS (MOST OF THE TIME)
Change in Mental Status
Drowsiness, hunger and rage are all changes in
mental status too!
10. NONSENSE DIAGNOSIS (MOST OF THE TIME)
Change in Mental Status
Syncope
Temporary loss of consciousness with interruption of awareness of
oneself and one’s surroundings
OFTEN INCORRECT HALF BECAUSE OF FAILURE TO TAKE A
HISTORY.
Rarely a justification for CT in the ER
Less than 4% of studies provide new information
Age greater than 65, anticoagulation, significant head trauma, accompanying
symptoms of headache or other focal neurological complaints change the
paradigm
If someone has fallen, this does NOT mean that they have lost
consciousness
11. NONSENSE DIAGNOSIS (MOST OF THE TIME)
Change in Mental Status
Syncope
TIA R/O CVA
Confuses the history (conclusion vs impression)
Are we talking about a clinical, radiological or patholophysiological diagnosis of
ischemia?
50% of TIAs are acute strokes on MRI
False negative MRI scans
In patient with lacunes or small brainstem strokes, initial MRI DWI will be negative in 25% of
cases especially with NIH score < 4 and stroke age <3 days
In an age of observational units, the honest consultant is deprived an appropriate
payment for service
12. KILLER WORDS
DIZZINESS
SLURRED SPEECH
BLURRED VISION
NUMBNESS
All of these symptoms are invisible BUT just like love, loyalty
and patriotism, they all exist.
The patient knows exactly what they are talking about
(even if you may not)
13. DIZZINESS
Spinning
Fast or Slow rotation
Fast-usually
labyrinthian or vestibular
Slower-may be central
Often with a sense of “rocking boat”
Positional
Lightheaded or fainting
Orthostatic?
Hyperventilation?
Hypotension?
“Are you dizzy in your head or in your feet?”
14. Three Most Common Causes Of Dizziness
Hemodynamic
Hyperventilation may =
sighing
Positional Vertigo
15. NUMBNESS
Often used interchangeably by the patient for
weakness
Paresthesias = pins and needles
Dysthesias=unpleasant or unnatural sensation
Anesthesia=no feeling
Remember to get the zip code right
(anatomical localization)
Diagrams of radicular and cutaneous innvervation
Load on jump drive
17. “SLURRED SPEECH”: DEFINITIONS
Problem with articulation or pronouciation (dysarthria)
Problem with language or word finding (aphasia)
Problem with vocal quality (dysphonia or hypophonia)
Problem of fluency (stutters, stammers, bradyphrenia)
Mumbled speech is not an expressive aphasia
Patient with profound facial weakness with dense
hemiplegia may have lost the capacity to articulate
but is not aphasic
18. Slurred Speech: Hints to Localization
Slow speech
?Aphasia == Dominant hemisphere?
?Bradyphrenia == Global, diffuse subcortical,
extrapyramidal or psychiatric disease
Difficult putting words together
Impaired attention == Global dysfunction
Lesions in the prefrontal cortex
Parietal lesions
Psychiatric disease
19. Slurred Speech: Hints To Localization
Conversational repetition
Impaired attention=short term memory
inpairment
Mesial temporal, thalamic or mammillary body
pathology
Abnormalities in articulation or pronunciation
Lesions of the corticobulbar tract
Brainstem motor nuclei, cranial nerves,
cerebellum, basal ganglion or vocal cords
Disorders of arousal and/or wakefulness
20. BLURRED VISION
Most difficult aspect of the history
Ask instead:
Double vision?
See something that shouldn’t be there?
Typically of migraine such as scotoma
Is something missing in your vision?
Field cut
Remember that a field cut is usually sensed by the patient
as being in one eye
Speed of onset
Stroke is sudden and dark
Migraine is wavelike in onset and resolution and
usually bright
21. FIRST AND LAST WORD ABOUT TPA
“When was the patient last seen in their normal state?”
Most important piece of history
Must be documented, especially if the decision is made
NOT to give thrombolytics
Just to have TPA brought up increases the risk of litigation
Victory for the plaintiff in such cases is almost always for
FAILURE to give TPA
Defendants (ER/neurology/hospital) still prevail the majority
of the time
22. Helpful Hints To Avoid Polarizing The Interview
“Blame it on the other guy”
“Brute force approach”
approach
How much do you drink, Mr. Is a cocktail or a beer
Brown? something you enjoy
regularly, Mr. Brown?
Do you know where you are,
Did anyone have a chance to
Mr. Brown? tell you the name of this
place? Well, anyone can get
mixed up in here.
Do you know why they Are they treating you well
brought you here?
here? What are they doing for
you?
23. In Conclusion…
Every patient you see is a lesson in much
Every patient you see is a lesson in much
more than the malady from which he
more than the malady from which he
suffers.
suffers.
The good physician treats the disease; the
The good physician treats the disease; the
great physician treats the patient who has
great physician treats the patient who has There are no coincidences in
There are no coincidences in
the disease
the disease neurology….EVER! Multiple events
neurology….EVER! Multiple events
William Osler MD
William Osler MD in a single patient occur for a
in a single patient occur for a
reason. If you can figure out the
reason. If you can figure out the
relationships, you can make the
relationships, you can make the
diagnosis.
diagnosis.
Randy M Rosenberg, MD
Randy M Rosenberg, MD
Neurologists only have to worry about two
Neurologists only have to worry about two
things…what the patient really has and what
things…what the patient really has and what
will kill the patient tonight.
will kill the patient tonight.
Arnold Bank, MD
Arnold Bank, MD