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Early-onset dementia: diagnostic challenges

A 56-year-old man was brought to our hospital by his family, seeking medical treatment for the patient’s long-standing progressive word-finding difficulties, forgetfulness, agitation and social withdrawal. After multiple previous physician consultations, the patient was mistakenly diagnosed with epi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Elhusein, Bushra, Mahgoub, Omer Bakri, Khairi, Abdalla
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7078668/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32188610
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2019-233460
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author Elhusein, Bushra
Mahgoub, Omer Bakri
Khairi, Abdalla
author_facet Elhusein, Bushra
Mahgoub, Omer Bakri
Khairi, Abdalla
author_sort Elhusein, Bushra
collection PubMed
description A 56-year-old man was brought to our hospital by his family, seeking medical treatment for the patient’s long-standing progressive word-finding difficulties, forgetfulness, agitation and social withdrawal. After multiple previous physician consultations, the patient was mistakenly diagnosed with epilepsy and prescribed multiple anticonvulsants, to which his above mentioned symptoms were unresponsive. His condition progressed over the next 10 years, resulting in severe cognitive impairments and a complete dysfunctionality. An electroencephalogram (EEG) assessment revealed persistent spike and wave activity in the left temporal lobe. Brain MRI revealed multiple small bright T2 and fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) foci within the white matter of both cerebral hemispheres surrounding the ventricular system, as well as some widening of extra-axial cerebrospinal fluid spaces. The patient was finally diagnosed with early-onset dementia and temporal lobe epileptiform abnormalities. This case emphasises the need for diagnostic consideration of dementia in cognitively impaired patients, even when they are not of an advanced age.
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spelling pubmed-70786682020-03-23 Early-onset dementia: diagnostic challenges Elhusein, Bushra Mahgoub, Omer Bakri Khairi, Abdalla BMJ Case Rep Unusual Presentation of More Common Disease/Injury A 56-year-old man was brought to our hospital by his family, seeking medical treatment for the patient’s long-standing progressive word-finding difficulties, forgetfulness, agitation and social withdrawal. After multiple previous physician consultations, the patient was mistakenly diagnosed with epilepsy and prescribed multiple anticonvulsants, to which his above mentioned symptoms were unresponsive. His condition progressed over the next 10 years, resulting in severe cognitive impairments and a complete dysfunctionality. An electroencephalogram (EEG) assessment revealed persistent spike and wave activity in the left temporal lobe. Brain MRI revealed multiple small bright T2 and fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) foci within the white matter of both cerebral hemispheres surrounding the ventricular system, as well as some widening of extra-axial cerebrospinal fluid spaces. The patient was finally diagnosed with early-onset dementia and temporal lobe epileptiform abnormalities. This case emphasises the need for diagnostic consideration of dementia in cognitively impaired patients, even when they are not of an advanced age. BMJ Publishing Group 2020-03-17 /pmc/articles/PMC7078668/ /pubmed/32188610 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2019-233460 Text en © BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
spellingShingle Unusual Presentation of More Common Disease/Injury
Elhusein, Bushra
Mahgoub, Omer Bakri
Khairi, Abdalla
Early-onset dementia: diagnostic challenges
title Early-onset dementia: diagnostic challenges
title_full Early-onset dementia: diagnostic challenges
title_fullStr Early-onset dementia: diagnostic challenges
title_full_unstemmed Early-onset dementia: diagnostic challenges
title_short Early-onset dementia: diagnostic challenges
title_sort early-onset dementia: diagnostic challenges
topic Unusual Presentation of More Common Disease/Injury
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7078668/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32188610
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2019-233460
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