Good To Know: Hodgkin’s Can Cause Memory Loss
Really fascinating story over the weekend in the NY Times, everyone’s favorite science journal, about a gentleman who presented to the ER with acute severe memory loss and insomnia. The physical exam and an LP were normal, and there was no evidence of epilepsy or autoimmune disease (lupus was on the differential—always is).
The very astute neurologist somehow recognized it as a cancer-related illness, and he turned out to have a mediastinal mass from Hodgkin’s lymphoma that had begun to cause inflammation in his brain. All I can say is: Wow.
I would not have put that on the differential in a million years, but then again, I’m not a neurologist, or a clinician of any sort, or a smart man.
Well, the differential was not Hodgkins, but a paraneoplastic syndrome, therefore they just decided to check scans to make sure no mass was observed. After they saw the mass, they biopsied it. It is an unusual presentation, but one has to sort of realize what paraneoplastic syndromes can do. Neurologists are particularly good at this, once they scan the brain, to their EEGs and everything is structurally normal, they like to look for other causes.
best
Leo
i wonder what led him to think it might be…
Ah, got it Leo. That makes more sense.
Ben. I know in your post you asked for more comments, and I decided that once the thought hit my head (I can’t say brain for sure) I decided to post it anyway.
Sounds a lot like an episode of HOUSE …
Sorry.
Jon
It is definitely House-licious.