Ken,did you hear mcCain rambling on in his speech today in bikerland....symptoms again of OBS(organic brain syndrome)
OBS can be divided into 2 major subgroups: acute (delirium or ACS) and chronic (dementia). A third entity, encephalopathy (subacute OBS), denotes a gray zone between delirium and dementia; its early course may fluctuate, but it is often persistent and progressive.
The final common pathway of all forms of OBS is an alteration in cortical brain function. This condition results from (1) an exogenous insult or an intrinsic process that affects cerebral neurochemical functioning or (2) physical or structural damage to the cortex. Some of the etiologies include trauma, mass lesions, hydrocephalus, strokes (ie, multi-infarct dementia), atrophy, infection, toxins or dementing processes.
The end result of these disruptions of function or structure is impairment of cognition that affects some or all of the following: alertness, orientation, emotion, behavior, memory, perception, language, praxis, problem solving, judgment, and psychomotor activity. Knowledge of which areas of this spectrum are affected or spared guides both the workup and the diagnosis. |
