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Query: UMLS:C0038454 (stroke)
 147,016 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

While reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome (RSDS) research is lacking and the pathophysiology remains obscure, it is known that it affects all age groups with the common overriding complaint of severe, unrelenting, burning pain. It seems to be triggered by trauma (major or minor), including more central events such as myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accident and tumours. Diagnostic characteristics of RSDS are: spontaneous burning pain, hyperalgesia, vasomotor disturbances, exacerbations by emotional upset, occurrence either spontaneously or after minor injury, occasional spontaneous resolution, extension to other body parts, and relief by sympathetic denervation. The problem may recur after earlier resolution. The problem for this author, and others, is the discrepancy between what appears in the literature and what is evidenced in clinical practice. What is being observed is a large number of individuals with RSDS who are not easily treated or cured. The problem for some clients becomes one of total body involvement, with severe incapacitation related to the constant and intense nature of the pain and the accompanying alterations in mobility. This author and two colleagues designed and conducted a study of clients registered with the RSDS Association to delineate the magnitude and long-term effects of RSDS in this sample.
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PMID:Reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome: a retrospective pain study. 228 58

This chapter has reviewed some of the methodological and theoretical issues in research linking the social environment to medical illnesses. The second part of the chapter has focused on three specific neurological entities to examine evidence for a possible association between neurological illness and life stress. There is some suggestion that certain vulnerable epileptic patients can experience convulsions in response to acute emotional upheaval or certain types of cognitive challenges. More commonly, it is probable that social stress and emotional tension can produce lowering of seizure threshold by increasing levels of fatigue and disrupting sleep. The latter factor, in particular, is known to lower seizure threshold. In the case of stroke, several dramatic cases of intracranial hemorrhage have been related to disastrous life circumstances. A general association between life stress and stroke has yet to be established. The case for a link between life events and onset of exacerbation of multiple sclerosis seems stronger. Events which produce emotional upset seem capable of worsening symptoms in patients with existing disease, and several studies have reported unusual life stresses in the period preceding onset of symptoms in this disorder.
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PMID:The social environment and neurological disease. 389 69

All contributory factors to the unusual occurrence of stroke in young people were evaluated in patients under age 40 admitted to the Stroke Unit of the Austin Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Over the August 1977 to December 1980 period there were 700 admissions. Of these 14 patients were under the age of 40. There were 7 males and 7 females whose ages ranged from 17-38 years. Each patient was screened for factors which might contribute to premature vascular disease including hypertension, diabetes, smoking, obesity, and hyperlipidemia. In addition, the following tests were performed to exclude an arteritic process: full blood examination; ESR; protein electrophoresis; syphilis serology; and the presence of antinuclear factor. Each of the 14 patients suffered cerebral infarction. A summary of each case is presented in a table. In 9 patients, infarction occurred in the carotid territory of supply. Large cortical infarcts with or without subcortical involvement occurred in cases 1-8, of whom 5 had major vessel occlusion demonstrated angiographically and another had stenosing and ulcerative atheromatous disease at the extracranial carotid bifurcation. In a further 4 patients, infarction occurred within the vertebrobasilar territory and was either confined to the brain stem, the occiptal cortex, or involved both. Angiograms were performed in 2 of these patients and showed irregular narrowing of the vertebral artery which was interpreted as spasm and segmentally narrowing of the basilar artery. The final patient had several ischemic events which included right sided amaurosis fugax, and left frontal, right parieto-occipital and left occipital infarctions. Angiography was normal. All patients survived the stroke and were able to go home. There may be an interrelationship between the pathological findings of Irey et al. (1978) and the effect oral contraceptives (OCs) has on migraine. This is relevant to Case 13. Sustained exposure to OCs may produce the pathological changes described (visible as segmental narrowing angiographically). In 2 patients cerebral infarction was caused by atheromatous or hypertensive occlusive vascular disease. In Case 3 an embolus occluded the middle cerebral artery. Infarction complicating migraine was diagnosed confidently in 4 patients on the basis of typical migrainous symptomatology in the past and accompanying the stroke. Of the 12 patients fully evaluated, there were no cases of polycythemia or thrombocytosis. There were no abnormalities of the clotting factors. Almost every patient had some form of emotional upset, and there were 7 who had significant psychiatric illness and emotional problems of extreme magnitide.
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PMID:Stroke syndromes in young people. 692 82