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Thalamic dementia: report of a case with unusual lesion location

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Abstract

Thalamic dementia usually results from a bilateral paramedian thalamic infarction. We report a case with typical clinical and neuropsychological features of thalamic dementia, but with CT evidence of an unusual and asymmetrical location of ischemic lesions. Somatosensory evoked potential recordings were consistent with a left medial thalamic infarction, associated with a contralateral lesion, possibly at lemniscal level. This case suggests that thalamic dementia may develop following a unilateral paramedian thalamic infarction

Sommario

La sindrome di demenza talamica è generalmente attribuita ad infarti talamici paramediani bilaterali. Riportiamo un caso con gli aspetti clinici e neuropsicologici della demenza talamica, ma con dimostrazione alla tomografia computerizzata di un'atipica ed asimmetrica distribuzione delle lesioni ischemiche: la registrazione dei potenziali somestesici ha confermato l'esistenza di una lesione talamica paramediana sinistra, associata ad una lesione controlaterale, verosimilmente lemniscale. Questo caso suggerisce che la sindrome di demenza talamica può far seguito ad una compromissione talamica paramediana unilaterale.

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Abbruzzese, G., Arata, L., Bino, G. et al. Thalamic dementia: report of a case with unusual lesion location. Ital J Neuro Sci 7, 155–159 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02230434

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