Delirium

ID:

A 70 year-old female with a PMH of HTN, DM, hyperlipidemia and stage I breast cancer s/p lumpectomy with sentinel LN biopsy several years ago presented for elective surgery complicated by post-operative bleeding. She is now 4 days post-op and was found to be confused, somnolent and occasionally agitated.

HPI:

The patient could not be interviewed.

PE:

  • VS: Stable and within normal limits
  • General: unremarkable except for crackles in bilateral lung bases
  • MSE: only arouses to sternal rub and becomes agitated, moving all four extremities spontaneously and symmetrically.
  • Reflexes: corneal and gag reflexes present, suppresses eye movements with head turn, deep tendon reflexes 3+ throughout UE/LE bilaterally.

Assessment:

70 year-old woman with a history of HTN, DM, hyperlipidemia and breast cancer presents with worsening confusion, somnolence and occasional agitation four days after surgery. The combination of significantly altered consciousness and absence of focal neurological findings, all in the setting of a complicated surgical course suggest delirium.

Differential Diagnosis of Altered Mental Status:

Levels of consciousness

There are different levels of consciousness, they are named in the diagram below but are better described by the characteristics observed.

Initial assessment

Differential Diagnosis for Altered Mental Status

References:

  1. Inouye, S. K. (2006). Delirium in Older Persons. The New England journal of medicine, 354(11), 1157–1165. doi:10.1056/NEJMra052321
  2. Blueprints neurology. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott William & Wilkins, 2009.
  3. Tindall SC. Level of Consciousness. In: Walker HK, Hall WD, Hurst JW, editors. Clinical Methods: The History, Physical, and Laboratory Examinations. 3rd edition. Boston: Butterworths; 1990. Chapter 57. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK380/

Headache, vertigo and weakness

ID:

30 year-old male with no significant PMH presenting with right-sided “weakness”, vertigo and headache for three days.

HPI:

The patient was in his normal state of good health until three days prior to admission when he was out shopping and felt a headache and right-sided weakness. The headache came on suddenly, felt “sharp”, 7/10 in severity and radiated from the posterior occiput to his forehead on the right side. The headache was associated with vertigo and nausea/vomiting. At the same time, the patient noticed that he was no longer able to walk, describing “weakness” on the right side. He also began feeling dizzy, describing the sensation as “room spinning”. He denied changes in vision, hearing, difficulty speaking or swallowing (though he has had persistent hiccups for the past few days). He also denied CP, palpitations, SOB. He did seek immediate medical attention at an OSH but is unable to recall what was done and he was discharged from the ER on the same day. He presents 3 days later with persistent symptoms.

PE:

  • Mental status: normal
  • CN II-XII: intact with the exception of decreased sensation to sharp touch on right face and decreased gag reflex
  • Motor: normal bulk/tone, strength 5/5 in UE/LE bilaterally
  • Sensory: decreased sensation to pain and temperature on left body
  • Gait: wide-based, unable to tandem, heel, toe walk. Walking in place, he turns to the right.

Assessment:

30 year-old male with no PMH presenting with 3 days of HA, vertigo, hiccups, right-sided ataxia, and alternating decreased pain and temperature sensation on ipsilateral face and contralateral hemibody. These symptoms are suggestive of a brainstem lesion, localizing to the medulla. Hiccups suggest involvement of nucleus ambiguus (CN IX, X, XII). Alternating decreased pain/temperature sensation suggests involvement of the spinal tract of CN V, and interruption of fibers of the descending spinothalamic tract. These findings point further to a lesion in the right lateral medulla, likely vascular given the rapid onset of symptoms. Associated findings of right-sided ataxia suggests involvement of the superior cerebellar peduncle (restiform body) in the posterior lateral medulla. An MRI brain showed the lesion shown in Fig-1, and a CTA head/neck the following day showed dissection of the right vertebral artery.

A System for Cerebrovascular Disease:

Types of strokes

Clinical characteristics of strokes

Strokes are characterized by the sudden onset of focal neurological deficits. These are typically unilateral and consciousness is generally maintained.

  • dysphasia
  • dysarthria
  • weakness
  • ataxia
  • sensory loss
  • neglect
  • hemianopsia

If some of these typical features are not present (ex. gradual onset, significantly impaired consciousness, seizures early), consider alternative diagnoses (ex. hypoglycemia, subdural hematoma, mass, postictal paresis, migraine).

Common causes of stroke

The most common causes are atherosclerosis (leading to thromboembolism or local occlusion) and cardioembolism. If the patient does not have risk factors, consider alternatives:

  • contralateral ptosis/miosis: carotid artery dissection affecting sympathetic fibers
  • fever + murmur: infective endocarditis
  • HA + ↑ESR: giant-cell arteritis

References:

  1. Agabegi, S. (2013). Step-up to medicine. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
  2. van der Worp, H. B., & van Gijn, J. (2007). Acute Ischemic Stroke. The New England journal of medicine, 357(6), 572–579. doi:10.1056/NEJMcp072057

Intro to ddxof

I’m a medical student currently rotating through clinical clerkships resident assistant professor in emergency medicine. The purpose of this website is to force me to learn. Recently, I’ve found it increasingly difficult to study from review books, and even more difficult to recall and apply that information practically. What has been working is reading heavily about specific cases I’ve seen. Having a real person in mind, hearing their complaints, doing their examination and then supplementing the experience with targeted reading sticks far better.

As for the format, something that has been hammered into me over the past year is to be systematic in everything I do. The benefits being that I’m less likely to miss stuff if I approach everything the same way. The other benefit for me is that I find these systems to be a better way to learn. Less mnemonics, more flowcharts.

So, I’ll select appropriate cases I encounter (altering identifying information of course), read into it a bit, and create a systematic approach for the evaluation, diagnosis and management of that chief complaint.

The site’s going to be a bit rough, the goal is to make it easy to quickly archive these experiences for future reference and learning.