Pure sensory stroke and allied conditions.

Abstract

This paper contains an analysis of 135 cases in which numbness, either episodic or persistent, involved one side of the body. In most cases, the patients were candidates for the diagnosis of pure sensory stroke which is usually the result of an occlusive cerebrovascular lesion involving the thalamus. The cases are divided into three main categories, pure sensory stroke, pure sensory TIAs, and atypical cases. The clinical features described in an earlier paper have been confirmed for the most part. A major limitation is the paucity of pathological studies. The lack of reliable criteria for the recognition of migrainous paresthesias has probably resulted in the inadvertent inclusion of some such cases. Some other conditions, hemidysesthesia and cervical disc, which have had to be considered in the differential diagnosis have been included. Cases of occlusive disease of the posterior cerebral internal carotid and middle cerebral arteries have been analyzed for patterns of paresthesias which may serve to distinguish cortical lesions from thalamic.