TY - JOUR
T1 - Thalamic astasia
T2 - Inability to stand after unilateral thalamic lesions
AU - Masdeu, Joseph C.
AU - Gorelick, Philip B.
PY - 1988/6
Y1 - 1988/6
N2 - Inability to stand in the absence of motor weakness or marked sensory loss is usually considered to reflect midline cerebellar disease. However, the 15 patients reported here had astasia related to unilateral thalamic lesions, documented by autopsy and computed tomography in 2 patients and by computed tomography in 13. The lesions, including infarction (6), hemorrhage (7), and tumor (2), involved primarily the superoposterolateral portion of the thalamus, but spared the rubral region. Alert, with normal or near-normal strength on isometric muscle testing and a variable degree of sensory loss, the patients could not stand and 7 of them could not sit up unassisted. They fell backwards or toward the side contralateral to the lesion. They appeared to have a deficit of overlearned motor activity of an axial and postural nature. In the vascular cases, the deficit improved in a few days or weeks. However, these patients had a tendency to sustain falls during the rehabilitation period.
AB - Inability to stand in the absence of motor weakness or marked sensory loss is usually considered to reflect midline cerebellar disease. However, the 15 patients reported here had astasia related to unilateral thalamic lesions, documented by autopsy and computed tomography in 2 patients and by computed tomography in 13. The lesions, including infarction (6), hemorrhage (7), and tumor (2), involved primarily the superoposterolateral portion of the thalamus, but spared the rubral region. Alert, with normal or near-normal strength on isometric muscle testing and a variable degree of sensory loss, the patients could not stand and 7 of them could not sit up unassisted. They fell backwards or toward the side contralateral to the lesion. They appeared to have a deficit of overlearned motor activity of an axial and postural nature. In the vascular cases, the deficit improved in a few days or weeks. However, these patients had a tendency to sustain falls during the rehabilitation period.
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U2 - 10.1002/ana.410230612
DO - 10.1002/ana.410230612
M3 - Article
C2 - 2841901
AN - SCOPUS:0023884583
SN - 0364-5134
VL - 23
SP - 596
EP - 603
JO - Annals of Neurology
JF - Annals of Neurology
IS - 6
ER -