Week 6 Flashcards
What are the three pathological changes that may occur with neurogenic disorders?
- Angulated (see pic) atrophic muscle fibers – denotes mild disease
- Group atrophy (groups of atrophic muscle fibers – see pic) – severe disease
- Fiber type grouping (groups of same fiber types – see pic) in chronic stage
- Different colors denote different fiber types
What type of pathological change is this?

Angulated (see pic) atrophic muscle fibers
What type of pathological change is this?

Group atrophy
What type of pathological change is this?

Fiber type grouping (groups of same fiber types)
What are the 5 pathological changes with myopathic disorders? Be able to recognize each one and provide characteristics
- Inflammation (lymphocytes, plasma cells) may be present (for example in inflammatory myopathy and some dystrophies) – see pic
- Increased variability in fiber size (round atrophic fibers and hypertrophic fibers of varying diameter) – see pic (perifascicular atrophy → dermatomyositis)
- Degeneration and regeneration (basophilia) of muscle fibers
- Macrophage infiltrate and removal of muscle fibers (myophagocytosis)
- Replacement of removed muscle fibers with adipose and connective tissue (see pic – Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy)
What myopathic change is this?

- Inflammation (lymphocytes, plasma cells) may be present (for example in inflammatory myopathy and some dystrophies) – see pic
What myopathic change is this?

Perifasicular atrophy
What myopathic change is this?

- Replacement of removed muscle fibers with adipose and connective tissue (see pic – Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy)
What are the clinical and pathological findings with axonal neuropathy
- Axonal:
- Common
- Lesions - distal>proximal
- Mild or no slowing of NCV, normal F-wave
- Denervation change in muscle (EMG, histology) in acute and chronic forms
- When treated, recovery is slow and often incomplete
What are the clinical and pathological findings with demyelinating? neuropathy
- Demyelinating:
- Uncommon
- Lesions – proximal>distal in acute forms (e.g. AIDP)
- Marked slowing of NCV, reduced F-wave in acute forms
- Denervation change in muscle and onion bulbs/large nerves in chronic forms (e.g. some hereditary forms) – see pic
- When treated, recovery is rapid and complete or with minor residual deficits in most acute forms, but not in chronic forms or acute forms with significant axonal damage.
What is this characteristic of?

Demyelinating neuropathy -
- Denervation change in muscle and onion bulbs/large nerves in chronic forms (e.g. some hereditary forms) – see pic
LIST the components of a mental status exam?
Appearance, behavior/attitude, speech, mood/affect, thought process, thought content, perception, cognition, insight/judgement
What part of the mental status exam is the following:
- Habitus, grooming, dress, hygiene, clothing, facial expression, stated age
Appearance
What goes in the behavior/attitude portion of the mental status exam?
- Behavior/Attitude
- Note whether patient is cooperative, guarding, or suspicious
- Note patient’s eye contact, posturing (relaxed or tense), and psychomotor activity
- Psychomotor activity: orobuccal movements (tardive dyskinesia), wavy flexibility (catatonia), tics, mannerisms
What goes in the speech part of a mental status exam?
- Speech
- Note quantity (talkative or mute), quality (spontaneous or latent), rate (slow or pressured), rhythm/prosody, volume/tone (loud or monotone), aphasia/dysarthria
- Pressured speech
- Latency
- Clang association
- Note quantity (talkative or mute), quality (spontaneous or latent), rate (slow or pressured), rhythm/prosody, volume/tone (loud or monotone), aphasia/dysarthria
Define the following
- Pressured speech
- Latency
- Clang association
- Prosody
- Pressured speech: accelerated space
- Latency: increased time between speech
- Clang association: using rhyming words that mean nonsense (i.e. flippy flap)
- Prosody: emphasis on different syllables changing meaning
What goes in the mood and affect part of the mental status exam?
- Mood & Affect
- Mood (subjective): patient’s self-reported emotional attitude
- Can be neutral, euphoric, depressed, anxious, or irritable
- Affect (objective): inferred from emotional responses that are usually triggered by some stimulus
- Full
- Flat
- Blunted/constricted
- Reactive
- Expansive
- Labile
- Mood (subjective): patient’s self-reported emotional attitude
Define each of these affects
- Full
- Flat
- Blunted/constricted
- Reactive
- Expansive
- Labile
- Full (wide range of emotional expression)
- Flat (no emotion at all – associated with psychotic process)
- Blunted/constricted (low emotion, but little)
- Reactive (normal)
- Expansive (super happy)
- Labile (changing emotion)
What words describes thought process?
- Flight of ideas
- Loosening of associations
- Tangentiality
- Circumstantiality
- Thought block
- Neologisms
- linear/goal-directed
Define the following
- Flight of ideas
- Loosening of associations
- Tangentiality
- Circumstantiality
- Thought block
- Neologisms
- linear/goal-directed
- Flight of ideas (little association – maybe one word)
- Loosening of associations (no association at all)
- Tangentiality (changing subject)
- Circumstantiality (beating around bush)
- Thought block (thinking for a long time)
- Neologisms (made-up words), linear/goal-directed (normal)
What goes in a thought content exam?
- Thought Content (includes risk assessment)
- Suicidality (w/ intent and plan is worse), homicidal ideations, perceptual abnormalities, delusions (see below)
- Control
- Erotomaniac
- Grandiose
- Somatic
- Persecutory
- Suicidality (w/ intent and plan is worse), homicidal ideations, perceptual abnormalities, delusions (see below)
What are these? Define each.
- Control
- Erotomaniac
- Grandiose
- Somatic
- Persecutory
Delusions
- Control (external force controlling thoughts)
- Erotomaniac (unrecruited love)
- Grandiose (thinking highly of oneself)
- Somatic (body is abnormal)
- Persecutory (someone is after you)
What goes in the perception part of the MSE?
- Illusions
- Hallucinations
- Auditory/visual , tactile, olfactory
- Hypnagogic, hypnopompic
Define the following:
- Illusions
- Hallucinations
- Auditory/visual , tactile, olfactory (what do you get each of these with??)
- Hypnagogic, hypnopompic
- Illusions (visual misperception of an existing object – i.e rope=snake)
- Hallucinations (visual misperception of nothing – i.e. nothing=snake)
- Auditory/visual (thought disorders), tactile (substance use), olfactory (seizures)
- Hypnagogic (hallucinations before sleep), hypnopompic (hallucinations at waking) – related to sleep