%0 Journal Article
%T A 64-year old man presenting with carotid artery occlusion and corticobasal syndrome: a case report
%A Marc Engelen
%A Dunja Westhoff
%A Jan de Gans
%A Paul J Nederkoorn
%J Journal of Medical Case Reports
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1752-1947-5-357
%X A 64-year-old Caucasian man visited a neurologist because of profound asymmetric sensory and motor disturbances. A magnetic resonance imaging scan of his brain revealed occlusion of his internal carotid artery on the left side with multiple vascular lesions in his left hemisphere and notable atrophy of mainly the left parietal and frontal cortex.We describe a patient with corticobasal syndrome caused by multiple infarctions, probably caused by emboli of the carotid stenosis. This patient illustrates the fact that the word 'syndrome' should be preferred above 'degeneration' in the name of this disease.Corticobasal degeneration (CBD) was formerly considered to be a well-defined clinicopathological entity. The classic description of CBD includes clumsiness and loss of function of one hand due to a combination of frontoparietal and basal ganglia sensorimotor dysfunction [1]. However, many patients who are diagnosed using current diagnostic criteria do not have classical corticobasal degeneration pathology [2]. Therefore it is now customary to diagnose corticobasal syndrome (CBS) during life, and refer to the classical pathology as CBD. CBS can be caused by classical CBD pathology, but also by the pathology of progressive supranuclear palsy, frontotemporal lobe degeneration or even Alzheimer's [3]. A few cases have been reported where the presumed cause of CBS was multiple brain infarctions bilaterally [4]. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain in patients with CBS typically shows focal or asymmetric atrophy, usually maximal in the frontoparietal cortex.A 64-year-old Caucasian man experienced sudden cramping of the toes of his right foot, and simultaneous weakness and numbness of his right leg. This lasted for approximately 20 minutes, after which he completely recovered. These incidents recurred, increasing in frequency for several weeks. At first, he fully recovered after each episode. Some weeks later, he noticed a persisting numbness of both his right leg and
%U http://www.jmedicalcasereports.com/content/5/1/357