Neurosyphilis : $b Modern systematic diagnosis and treatment presented in one hundred and thirty-seven case historiesSouthard, Elmer Ernest
Science
Neurosyphilis : $b Modern systematic diagnosis and treatment presented in one hundred and thirty-seven case histories
Southard, Elmer Ernest
Neurosyphilis
Upon his arrival, Rokicki was seen in one of his attacks; he was curled
up with excruciating pain, and the abdomen was rigid, though it was
impossible to produce additional pain by external pressure. There was
spasmodic vomiting, frequently followed by slight relief from the pain,
which however shortly recurred and caused the patient to cry out in his
suffering. The condition was controlled by opiates but lasted a full
week. The leucocytes remained normal and there was no rise of
temperature. The attack ceased spontaneously.
Save for the pain, Rokicki’s =mental examination= proved entirely
negative. =Physically=, Rokicki was fairly well developed and nourished.
His pupils were slightly irregular: the left markedly larger than the
right; both pupils failed to react to light, and the left pupil also
failed to react in accommodation. There were no other reflex disorders
evident to systematic examination, nor was there sensory disturbance or
speech defect. The heart seemed somewhat enlarged but there were no
murmurs; blood pressure: systolic 150; diastolic 110.
The correct symptomatic diagnosis in Rokicki’s case proved to be gastric
crises, and this diagnosis must perforce be the first to entertain in
view of the chronicity, the periodicity, the non-relation to diet, and
the spontaneous cessation of the seizures. The observation of
Argyll-Robertson pupils was naturally held to substantiate the diagnosis
of TABES DORSALIS.
The possibility of abdominal inflammation could be shortly dismissed on
account of the absence of tenderness (the rigidity in this case was not
accompanied by tenderness), fever, and other characteristic signs. There
was no diarrhoea, such as is found in lead colic, and there was no other
sign of plumbism. Jaundice was absent and there was no special radiation
of pain from the abdomen. One had to think of gastric ulcer and
hyperchlorhydria, and possibly malaria or gastroenteritis.
The pupillary reactions pointed to a syphilitic condition despite the
fact that the lack of reaction to accommodation (over and above the
Argyll-Robertson phenomenon) in the right pupil is not entirely typical.
Accordingly, although there was no areflexia, Romberg sign, or ataxia,
resort was had to the W. R. This however proved negative, in blood and
spinal fluid; nor was there any globulin or excess albumin; there were 5
cells to the cmm., in the spinal fluid.
We are left, accordingly, with characteristic gastric crises;
Argyll-Robertson pupils, slightly irregular; and a somewhat enlarged
heart.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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