Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Limb Apraxia in a case of corticobasal degeneration

This week I'll be doing a brain cutting on a patient with a clinical diagnosis of corticobasal degeneration. What made the clinical diagnosis a little easier in this case is the fact that the patient exhibited "alien limb" phenomenon of the left arm. Limb apraxia was also present. Apraxia is a disorder of skilled, learned, purposeful movement. CBD is is one of the few disorders in which limb apraxia can appear in the history (ie, patients are often aware of the apraxia).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

How many brains do you usually cut per session?

Brian E. Moore, MD, MEd said...

We only cut one brain per session. There's enough to talk about per case that one is plenty in an hour's time. At today's cutting of the corticobasal degeneration case, we not only talked about presenting symptoms like apraxia and alien limb, but we went over the anatomy of the medial lemniscus and other things. So, one brain is really sufficient for a one-hour session, in my opinion.
-BEM

Kelly said...

Dr. Moore - Are you aware of any neurologists in Springfield that specialize in CBD? My mom was diagnosed with Corticobasal Degeneration at the Mayo Clinic last month, and we are looking for a local neuro to oversee her care. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thank you!

Brian E. Moore, MD, MEd said...

To Kelly,
I would recommend movement disorder specialist Dr. Rodger Elble here in Sprinfield. He's top-notch!
BMoore

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