Thursday, May 14, 2009

Day #308 - Pontine Infarct

Today we heard the case of a patient who presented with diplopia, ataxia and vertigo in association with severe hypertension. The CT Scan was normal.

We discussed the differential diagnosis including hypertensive encephalopathy, PRES (posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome, first described in NEJM here with two good reviews here and here), and a pontine infarction.

We highlighted the difference in management depending on the etiology and decided (as the presenting team did) that an urgent MRI was required.

We went on to discuss acute ischemic stroke:

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