Rinsho Shinkeigaku (Clinical Neurology)

Brief Clinical Note

Cardioembolic stroke manifested by isolated tonic seizure of the left upper limb

Tomohiro Suga, M.D.1), Hiroyuki Kawano, M.D.1), Tadashi Terasaki, M.D.2), Yoichiro Hashimoto, M.D.1), Masaki Naganuma, M.D.1), Teruyuki Hirano, M.D.3) and Makoto Uchino, M.D.3)

Department of 1)Neurology and 2)Strokology, Kumamoto City Hospital
3)Department of Neurology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University

We reported a 61-years old man with cardioembolic stroke manifested by isolated tonic seizure of the left upper limb. He had a history of chronic atrial fibrillation and transiet ischemic attack. He was brought to our hospital by ambulance, when he suddenly had isolated tonic seizure of left upper limb. On admission, he had no neurological symptoms and signs. Brain diffusion weighted MR image disclosed high intensity area in the right parietal lobe, although T2-weighted image did not show any abnormalities. On 8th day, a high intensity area was observed both on the diffusion-weighted and T2-weighted MR images. In case of isolated tonic seizure of left upper limb, careful examination of stroke is required especially if the patient had a high risk of stroke.

(CLINICA NEUROL, 45: 518|520, 2005)
key words: tonic seizure, cardioembolic brain infarction, onset seizure, atrial fibrillation, diffusion-weighted image

(Received: 6-Sep-04)