Fifty Neurologic Cases from Mayo Clinic

This informative and entertaining compilation of 50 short neurological cases demonstrates important principles in clinical localization and differential diagnosis. Each case presents the key elements without revealing the diagnosis at first. A vivid clinical scenario provides enough information for the student to localize the site of the lesion and for the experienced neurological physician to reach a differential diagnosis. Each case description is followed by one or two illustrations, the diagnosis, and then a commentary by a Mayo Clinic consultant. The commentary highlights the issues in the differential diagnosis and provides an update on what is currently known about the specific diagnostic entity. The book will be of interest to physicians and surgeons caring for neurological patients at each stage of their career. It will be of particular help to medical students and to residents and fellows in neurology and neurosurgery. Internists, pediatricians, geriatricians, and psychiatrists will also find it useful.

Table of Contents:
1. Forgets name but has a new appreciation for polka music ; 2. Episodic psychosis, progressive ataxia, and spasticity ; 3. Occipital pain with tongue deviation ; 4. Twenty years of daily seizures ; 5. "Old polio," can't run, and can't swallow ; 6. Drenching sweats, sleep talking, and weight loss ; 7. Eight years of pain, 1 year of itch ; 8. "Spaghetti legs," numb feet, and constipation ; 9. Early satiety, syncope, and seizures ; 10. Intermittent diplopia and progressive ataxia ; 11. Another case of intermittent diplopia and progressive ataxia ; 12. Urinary hesitancy, reduced ankle jerks, and up-going toes ; 13. Can't serve and can't shave ; 14. A thousand headaches a year ; 15. An autistic toddler ; 16. Sudden unilateral face and tongue weakness ; 17. Rapidly progressive dysarthria, aphasia, and amyotrophy ; 18. De novo status epilepticus ; 19. Ventilator-dependent after optic neuritis ; 20. Headaches, seizure, and mastoid bruit ; 21. "I built a plywood barrier for our bed" ; 22. Facial pain and finger clubbing ; 23. Thunderclap headache and paraplegia ; 24. Fluctuating foot drop ; 25. Drowsy with spastic dysarthria ; 26. Focal paresthesias, can't whistle, and can't say "puh" ; 27. Progressive supine headache, diplopia, and ataxia ; 28. Syncope, foot pain, nocturnal diarrhea, and cachexia ; 29. Childhood recurrent aseptic meningitis, arthropathy, deafness, and rash ; 30. Headache, anomia, oscillopsia, and behavioral change ; 31. Progressive sensory ataxia despite preserved sensory potentials ; 32. Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with mental retardation ; 33. Progressive ataxia, with a twist ; 34. Progressive facial paralysis with preserved taste and ear wiggling ; 35. Lifelong refractory syncope, hypoglycemia and small digits ; 36. Dark skin, white fingernails, and swollen optic disks ; 37. Progressive ataxia with headache and focal signs ; 38. "When I watch television, I lose my sight" ; 39. Familial tremor and dystonia ; 40. Familial hemiplegic headaches and sclerotic long bones ; 41. A weak infant with episodic apnea ; 42. A healthy child with unilateral visual loss ; 43. Progressive limb-girdle weakness with dysarthria ; 44. Supine loss of consciousness, headache and retinal haemorrhage ; 45. Leg weakness, impotence, dry mouth and preserved reflexes ; 46. Progressive weakness, numbness, pain and visual loss ; 47. Refractory "multiple sclerosis" with cough and radiculopathy ; 48. Positional vertigo with an ominous appearing lesion ; 49. Painful scapular winging ; 50. "I rely on my secretary"