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A case of survival despite on EEG in the alpha range during coma after cardiac arrest in connection with acute myocardial infarction is reported. The other 5 published cases are referred to. On the basis of the available literature it is concluded that it is impossible to determine the few patients who will survive despite 'alph-pattern coma'.
Four patients who were rendered comatose or stuporous by drug intoxication, but who were not hypoxic, are described. Three patients received high doses of chlormethiazole for alcohol withdrawal symptoms, and one took a suicidal overdose of nitrazepam. The patient with nitrazepam overdose and two of those with chlormethiazole intoxication conformed to the criteria of 'alpha coma', showing non-reactive generalized or frontally predominant alpha activity in the EEG. The fourth patient who was unconscious after chlormethiazole administration exhibite generalized non-reactive activity in the slow beta range. All four recovered completely without neurological sequelae following the withdrawal of the offending agents. The similarities between the effects of structural lesions and pharmacological depression of the brain stem reticular formation are discussed. It is suggested that in both situations disturbed reticulo-thalamic interactions are important in the pathogenesis of alpha coma. It is concluded that when this electroencephalographic and behavioural picture is seen in drug intoxication, in the absence of significant hypoxaemia, a favourable outcome may be anticipated.
Concurrent burst suppression and alpha pattern coma developed in the EEG of a 2-year-old child who suffered a cardiac arrest secondary to hypoxemia from Haemophilus influenza epiglottis. The neurophysiological implications of this association are discussed and the literature pertaining to the role of barbiturates in the production of post-anoxic coma with an alpha pattern and experimental post-resuscitative alpha frequencies is reviewed.
Ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency is an X-linked disorder of the urea cycle that can cause hyperammonemic encephalopathy in hemizygous males and heterozygous females. Affected females typically limit protein intake in their diet. This case report describes a 36-year-old woman with ulcerative colitis who went into hyperammonemic coma after administration of total parenteral nutrition. A similar episode of coma had occurred 7 years earlier after she delivered a normal boy. Heterozygous ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency was diagnosed based on a positive allopurinol tolerance test result after elevated levels of plasma glutamine and low plasma citrulline were detected. The protein load associated with parenteral alimentation resulted in symptomatic expression of this partial enzyme deficiency in this unique case. Partial ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency must always be considered in adult women and men with hyperammonemia who have normal liver function test results.
Predictors of outcome were examined in this prospective study of 151 patients severely injured by civilian gunshot wounds. Of the 151 patients, 133 (88%) died. Of the 123 patients with an initial Glasgow Coma Scale score of 3-5, 116 (94%) died, whereas of the 20 with an initial Glasgow Coma Scale score of 6-8, 14 (70%) died. There were no good outcomes, and only three moderate recoveries in patients who had initial scores of 8 or less. In those patients who survived long enough for intracranial pressure monitoring, intracranial hypertension predicted a very poor outcome. Computed tomographic scan characteristics such as midline shift, compression or obliteration of the mesencephalic cisterns, the presence of subarachnoid blood, intraventricular hemorrhage, and the presence of hyperdense or mixed-density lesions greater than 15 mL, either bilateral or unilateral, were all associated with a poor outcome. However, neither the caliber of gun nor the distance of the gun from the head significantly affected the risk of dying.
Hypoglycemia due to the ingestion of oral hypoglycemic agents or injection of insulin is a common way for chronic factitious disorder to present to physicians. Despite this fact, factitious hypoglycemic coma is rare. Because hypoglycemia is potentially fatal, with numerous sequelae, physicians need to be aware of its occurrence and method of detection. A case of chronic factitious disorder presenting as hypoglycemic coma is presented and its implications discussed.
The cerebral protein and amino acid concentrations in guinea pigs coma due to barbiturate poisoning have been studies. Some significant alterations in systemic and central amino acid patterns have been found, giving rise to a hypothesis about the biochemical pathways involved in the coma. An attempt to correlate the amino acid changes and cerebral energetic 'need' is also reported.
Interest was aroused in two patients of 16 and 17 years of age and similar craniocerebral trauma, but who had differing EEG's 1 year after injury while their later situation was the reverse of what the EEG would have led one to expect. The patient with an iso-electric EEG showed clinical improvement during the course of the second year, as indicated by a rise in his Glasgow coma rating from 8 to 11. This patient had marked cortical atrophy with discrete central atrophy, shown by computed axial tomography (CT); the isotope cisternogram showed good peripheral absorption of the isotope and no penetration into the ventricles. The other patient showed diffuse slow-wave activity in his EEG but failed to improve clinically or electroencephalographically. His CT-scan showed marked central and discrete cortical atrophy; his isotopic cisternogram showed penetration of isotope into the ventricles with poor peripheral absorption. These two cases illustrate the hazard of relying on an iso-electric EEG after 1 year of coma as an indicator of brain death, and the value of the CT-scan in the initial assessment of such cases.
A 55-year-old woman with bipolar disorder who had been taking lithium for several years developed hyperosmolar coma following osteosynthesis of a hip fracture. The coma was attributed to decompensation of undiagnosed nephrogenic diabetes insipidus due to chronic lithium intake. The lengthy perioperative fasting and large fluid loading (necessitated by the anesthetic technique) led to acute hypernatremia. Closer monitoring and a different anesthetic strategy might have avoided this classical complication of chronic lithium therapy. The patient recovered after symptomatic treatment. We discuss the perioperative management of patients taking (or having taken) lithium, based on a review of the literature.
Myxedema coma is the term given to the most severe presentation of profound hypothyroidism and is often fatal in spite of therapy. Decompensation of the hypothyroid patient into a coma may be precipitated by a number of drugs, systemic illnesses (eg, pneumonia), and other causes. It typically presents in older women in the winter months and is associated with signs of hypothyroidism, hypothermia, hyponatremia, hypercarbia, and hypoxemia. Treatment must be initiated promptly in an intensive care unit setting. Although thyroid hormone therapy is critical to survival, it remains uncertain whether it should be administered as thyroxine, triiodothyronine, or both. Adjunctive measures, such as ventilation, warming, fluids, antibiotics, pressors, and corticosteroids, may be essential for survival.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest are at risk of subsequent death or poor neurological outcome up to a persistent vegetative state. We investigated the prognostic value of several epidemiological and clinical markers and two neuroproteins, neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and S-100 protein (S-100), in 97 patients undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) after non-traumatic cardiac arrest between 1998 and 2002. RESULTS: 52.6% of the patients died, 28.8% survived with severe, moderate or without neurological disorders, and 18.6% remained in a persistent vegetative state. Unconsciousness>48 h after CPR predicted a 60.6-fold (95% CI 14.3287-257.205, p=0.001) and a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)<6 points after 72 h a 11.2-fold (CI 95%, 3.55-36.44, p<0.001) risk of poor neurological outcome. Serum levels>or=65 ng/ml for NSE and >or=1.5 microg/l for S-100 increased the risk of death and persistent vegetative state 16.8 (95% CI 2.146-131.520)- and 12.6 (95% CI 1.1093-99.210)-fold, respectively. By combination of the GCS with elevated serum concentrations of both neuroproteins above the cut off levels on third day after CPR a poor neurological outcome was predicted with a specificity of 100%. CONCLUSION: The combination of GCS with the serum levels of both neuroproteins at 72 h after CPR permit a more reliable prediction of outcome in post arrest coma than the single markers alone, independent of the application of anaesthetic agents.
Under modeling of thiopental coma influence of sodium succinate and (or) external warming for the support of normal body temperature (isothermal regimen) on the gas exchange, blood gas content, acid-base status and survival rate was studied in rats. In the absence of therapy hypothermia was developed (-9.4 degrees C), O(2) consumption decreased by a factor 5, oxygenation of arterial blood (pO(2)) did not change while that of venous blood increased, where with arteriovenous oxygen tension gradient decreased by half. Blood tension of carbon dioxide (pCO(2)) increased twice, respiratory and metabolic acidosis was developed. Survival rate under absence of a therapy was 42%, with isolated use of isothermal regimen or succinate therapy alike-50%; with their use in combination drastically increased up to 92%. Succinate increased arteriovenous gradient of pO(2), decreased deficit of buffer bases, increased bicarbonate concentration. At isothermal regimen accumulation of CO(2) in the blood was diminished, its excretion was increased, pH of blood approached normal values. Combined use of both therapy agents increased O(2) consumption and potentiated their positive influence on acid-base status. The implication is that hypothermia restrains effect of succinate in barbiturate coma; prevention of hypothermia in combination with succinate administration is highly effective method of experimental therapy of barbiturate intoxication.
Isosmolar coma occurred during the first week of parenteral nutrition in four infants when the amount of protein hydrolysate infused was rapidly increased to or above 4 gm/kg/day. Coma developed within a 6- to 12-hour period and was characterized by (1) a normal serum osmolality, (2) an elevated urine specific gravity, and (3) the rapid reversal of the clinical signs when the protein containing solution was discontinued. A very gradual increase in protein content to a total of no more than 4 gm/kg/day is advised to provide an adequate yet safe protein load for intravenous nutrition.
The relative effectiveness of exchange transfusion, peritoneal dialysis, arginine, and sodium benzoate was evaluated during 44 episodes of hyperammonemic coma in 31 patients with congenital urea cycle enzymopathies. The overall survival rate was 56%. In 15 episodes treated with EXT the fall in ammonium was 19 +/- 24%, P > 0.05. In 30 episodes treated with PD, the fall in ammonium was 60 +/- 9%, P < 0.001. Ten times more nitrogen was removed as glutamine than as ammonium during dialysis, suggesting that the effectiveness of PD resides in the removal of glutamine, glutamate, and alanine as well as ammonium. Prior to therapy all patients had hypoargininemia (18 +/- 2 microM); they responded to arginine supplementation with a rise in plasma arginine concentration to normal. In patients with AL deficiency, arginine supplementation (4 mmol/kg/day) was associated with a fall in ammonium level from 917 +/- 62 to 103 +/- 18 microM within 24 hours. When sodium benzoate (250 mg/kg/day) was used during eight episodes of coma, six patients responded with a significant decrease in plasma ammonium.
Hyperammonemic coma without liver disease or associated deficiencies in urea cycle enzymes is rare. We report a case and discuss the pathophysiological findings of hyperammonemic coma secondary to Proteus mirabilis urinary tract infection.
Ammoniagenic coma or episodic stupor is a rare complication of ureterosigmoidostomy. We report a case with the unusual features of normal liver function and normal liver biopsy. With extremely rare exception, ammoniagenic coma will not occur in the presence of normal ornithine-urea cycle synthesis in the liver.
OBJECTIVE: Literature review concerning the contribution of neurological imaging to the assessment of traumatic lesions and the prognosis of traumatic coma. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Interrogation of scientific databases Medline, Embase and Current Contents via key-words. One hundred and seventy-one articles were picked up out of which 67 were analysed according to the French ANAES' rules. Results and discussion are drawn from the literature data and the author's experience. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: In the acute stage the diagnosis approach prevails the prognostic dimension, is confused by secondary complications. Computerized-Tomography (CT) remains the best imaging modality, allowing a quick diagnosis of most of injuries, especially those which require an emergency treatment. But its predictive value in coma outcome is low. Although magnetic resonance imagery (MRI) is more sensitive, it does not at the acute stage lead to therapeutic modifications, increases the costs and is thus not necessary. MRI angiography may show cranial vessel injury which need specific therapeutic procedures. In the subacute or chronic stage after a severe head injury, CT is useful for the follow up and may provide some prognostic informations. But MRI with classical sequences has a higher sensitive and predictive power. Diffusion weighted imaging has not so far made the proof of it's predictive value. Proton MR spectroscopy seems to be able to provide data correlated with neurological outcome (NAA/Cr), but is not of routine use. Single-photon emission tomography is also useful to assess brain injury sequelae in the chronic stage; positron-emission tomography still remains a research technology. These 2 modalities have not yet a prognostic value. CONCLUSION: In the acute stage CT remains the best imaging modality. In the subacute and chronic stage MRI has the highest predictive power. Special sequences raise new hopes. Single-photon emission tomography and positron-emission tomography have not yet a prognostic value.
The use of flumazenil, a benzodiazepine antagonist, was studied in two patients with coma of unknown etiology. One patient ingested 20.5 mg alprazolam before crashing his truck into parked automobiles. The patient was awakened by flumazenil administration, and the severity of his injuries was evaluated reliably. A second patient ingested 7.5 mg triazolam and attempted suicide with carbon monoxide from car exhaust. His coma resolved completely after the administration of the double-blind study drug, obviating treatment with hyperbaric oxygen. Flumazenil had a clear diagnostic and therapeutic role in the treatment of these patients and should be a useful tool for emergency physicians and toxicologists.