Diagnosis of patients with disorders of consciousness (comprising coma, vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, and minimally conscious state) has long been dependent on unstandardized behavioral tests. The arrival of standardized behavioral tools, and especially the Coma Recovery Scale revised, uncovered a high rate of misdiagnosis. Ancillary techniques, such as brain imaging and e...

Introduction The termination of myxoedema in coma was described in the Report of the Clinical Society of London(i888) and had been noted even before this (St. Thomas's Hospital Report, I879). It is an uncommon complication occurring in longstanding untreated cases and hitherto was fatal, with the possible exception of one patient (Malden, 1955), and here the cerebro-spinal fluid protein was mar...

A case of coma due to Wernicke's encephalopathy complicated by respiratory failure is described. Ventilation and thiamine administration lead to recovery, although Korsakoff's psychosis and ataxia persisted. A review of similar cases of coma emphasizes the absence of diagnostic features, but that if structural disease is excluded the presence of pupillary and ocular signs may support a diagnosi...

Temporary decortication induced by acute cerebral ischemia or insulin coma reinstated the initial syndrome of emotional hyperreactivity in rats fully recovered from septal forebrain lesions. The effect was virtually the same as observed earlier with the use of spreading cortical depression. Surprisingly it was found that insulin coma induced during the acute phase of the septal syndrome but not...

BACKGROUND Very severe traumatic brain injury may cause disorders of consciousness in the form of coma, unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (also known as vegetative state) or minimally conscious state. Previous studies of outcome for these patients largely pre-date the 2002 definition of minimally conscious state. OBJECTIVES To establish the numbers of patients with disorder of consciousness a...

Chronic disorders of consciousness Chronic disorders of consciousness (CDC) are states of illness that are notorious for provoking substantial ethical quandaries. The fiction literature, cinema and theater abound with stories of individuals who have been lying in coma for months or years until they eventually (and miraculously) wake up to see a world that has significantly changed. Famous examp...

BACKGROUND Malaria is a leading cause of mortality in Uganda accounting for 25% of deaths among children. Hitherto no adjunct therapy has been identified to improve outcome of cerebral malaria. Retinol suppresses growth of P.falciparum, scavenges free radicals, and exhibits synergistic action with quinine in parasite clearance. OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of vitamin A supplementation on...