Cardiac arrhythmia in relation to cerebral anaemia and epileptiform crises / by Alfred Webster, M.D., Fellow of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow.

  • Webster, Alfred.
Date:
[1901]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Cardiac arrhythmia in relation to cerebral anaemia and epileptiform crises / by Alfred Webster, M.D., Fellow of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    sterno-mastoid; alternate flushing and palsy of the face, and slight obliteration of the right naso-labial fold were all features of the case leading up to a fatal issue. The necropsy revealed softening and anaemia of the brain substance generally. The basal vessels were not markedly diseased. The heart was large, dilated, and the walls had undergone fatty degeneration. The valvular orifices were dilated and the mitral and aortic valves were slightly thickened. The aorta was dilated, the lungs were congested and oedematous, and old, scattered, tubercles were detected. The left kidney was markedly caseous. The spinal cord was small, and the second right sacral ganglion was converted into a cyst, and a small tumour was found in the third sacral root. CASE XIII. Pugin Thornton reports the case of a woman, aged 30, who had had tracheotomy performed for syphilis of the upper air passages in 1872. At that time the pulse rate was 40, and six weeks later it had fallen to 16-24 a minute. It appeared that the patient had been under the care of Dr. Eansome of Nottingham, in 1870, and his notes of the case are very in- teresting and descriptive. The patient had attacks of an epileptiform nature, associated with a very slow rate of the pulse, the average rate being about 24 beats per minute. The attacks lasted for a period of two months. A severe fit began with sudden pallor of the face, complete loss of consciousness and motor power, cessation of the heart’s action for several seconds, on one occasion for 18 seconds. Eespiration then became quickened and almost stertorous, the face flushed, the eyes suffused, fixed and turned upwards. She foamed at the mouth. After a time consciousness returned, the expres- sion became calm, and no signs of distress remained; the intellect became clear, and the pulse returned to the normal rate of 24 per minute. Hallucinations were frequent. The intensity of the fits varied—sometimes twelve occurred in a quarter of an hour—and were of a transient nature, and the patient could take up the thread of conversation which had been interrupted by the attack.