• J Emerg Med · Nov 2018

    Case Reports

    Pathological Laughter as a Symptom of Middle Cerebral Artery Stroke.

    • Gülden Özel, David Maltête, and Romain Lefaucheur.
    • Department of Neurology, Rouen University Hospital and University of Rouen, France.
    • J Emerg Med. 2018 Nov 1; 55 (5): 707-709.

    BackgroundPathological laughter is defined as uncontrollable and inappropriate laughter unrelated to an emotion or a mood. This symptom can reveal a stroke.Case ReportWe described the case of a 57-year-old patient who presented to the emergency department 2 h after a sudden onset of left hemiparesis preceded by pathological laughter. The left motor weakness was very discrete and underestimated because of severe behavioral changes, that is, laughter, joviality, and motor restlessness. Despite abnormal brain imaging results, symptoms were considered as atypical to evoke a stroke. The patient did not receive intravenous thrombolysis. Brain magnetic resonance imaging performed 2 days after admission confirmed the diagnosis of stroke. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: Emergency physicians are at the forefront of stroke management. They should be aware that the initial symptom of a stroke can be atypical and lead to misunderstanding the diagnosis. Because the treatment of stroke requires the fastest care, it is important for emergency physicians to know that sudden behavioral troubles and pathological laughter can reveal strokes.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        

    hide…

Want more great medical articles?

Keep up to date with a free trial of metajournal, personalized for your practice.
1,704,841 articles already indexed!

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.