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Numerous guides to the examination of the nervous system are available (see the references at the end of this chapter). For a full account of these methods, the reader is referred to several of the monographs on the subject, including those of Bickerstaff and Spillane, Campbell (DeJong's Neurological Examination), and of the staff members of the Mayo Clinic, each of which approaches the subject from a somewhat different point of view. An inordinately large number of tests of neurologic function have been devised, and it is not proposed to review all of them here. Some are described in subsequent chapters dealing with disorders of mentation, cranial nerves, and motor, sensory, and autonomic functions. Many tests are of doubtful value or are repetitions of simpler tests and thus should not be taught to students of neurology. Merely to perform all of them on one patient would require several hours and, in most instances, would not make the examiner any the wiser. The danger with all clinical tests is to regard them as indicators of a particular disease rather than as ways of uncovering disordered functioning of the nervous system. The following approaches are relatively simple and provide the most useful information.
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Testing of Higher Cortical Functions
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These functions are tested in detail if the patient's history or behavior has provided a reason to suspect some defect. Broadly speaking, the mental status examination has two main components, although the separation is somewhat artificial: the psychiatric aspects, which incorporate affect, mood, and normality of thought processes and content, and the cognitive aspects, which include the level of consciousness, awareness (attention), language, memory, visuospatial, and other executive abilities.
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Questions are first directed toward determining the patient's orientation in time and place and insight into his current medical problem. Attention, speed of response, ability to give relevant answers to simple questions, and the capacity for sustained and coherent mental effort all lend themselves to straightforward observation. There are many useful bedside tests of attention, concentration, memory, and clarity of thinking including repetition of a series of digits in forward and reverse order, serial subtraction of 3s or 7s from 100, and recall of three items of information or a short story after an interval of 3 min. More detailed examination procedures appear in Chaps. 20, 21, 22, and 23. The patient's account of his recent illness, dates of hospitalization, and day-to-day recollection of recent incidents are excellent tests of memory; the narration of the illness and the patient's choice of words (vocabulary) and syntax provide information about language ability and coherence of thinking.
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If there is any suggestion of a speech or language disorder, the nature of the patient's spontaneous speech should be noted. In addition, the accuracy of reading, writing, and spelling, executing spoken commands, repeating words and phrases spoken by the examiner, naming objects and parts of objects, and solving simple logical problems should be assessed.
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The ability to carry out commanded tasks (praxis) has great salience in the evaluation of several aspects of cortical function. Bisecting a line, drawing a clock or the floor plan of one's home or a map of one's country, and copying figures are useful tests of visuospatial perception and are indicated in cases of suspected cerebral disease. The testing of language, cognition, and other aspects of higher cerebral function are considered in Chaps. 21, 22, and 23.
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Testing of Cranial Nerves
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The function of the cranial nerves must be investigated more fully in patients who have neurologic symptoms than in those who do not. If one suspects a lesion in the anterior cranial fossa, the sense of smell should be tested in each nostril; then it should be determined whether odors can be discriminated. Visual fields can be outlined by confrontation testing, ideally by testing each eye separately. If an abnormality is suspected, it should be checked on a perimeter and scotomas sought on the tangent screen or, more accurately, by computerized perimetry. Pupil size and reactivity to light, direct, consensual, and during convergence, the position of the eyelids, and the range of ocular movements should next be observed. Details of these tests and their interpretations are given in Chaps. 12, 13, and 14.
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Sensation over the face is tested with a pin and wisp of cotton. Also, the presence or absence of the corneal reflexes, direct and consensually, may be determined.
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Facial movements should be observed as the patient speaks and smiles, for a slight weakness may be more evident in these circumstances than on movements to command.
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The auditory meati and tympanic membranes should be inspected with an otoscope. A high-frequency (512 Hz) tuning fork held next to the ear and on the mastoid discloses hearing loss and distinguishes middle-ear (conductive) from neural deafness. Audiograms and other special tests of auditory and vestibular function are needed if there is any suspicion of disease of the vestibulocochlear nerve or of the cochlear and labyrinthine end organs (see Chap. 15). The vocal cords must be inspected with special instruments in cases of suspected medullary or vagus nerve disease, especially when there is hoarseness. Voluntary pharyngeal elevation and elicited reflexes are meaningful if there is an asymmetrical response; bilateral absence of the gag reflex is seldom significant. Inspection of the tongue, both protruded and at rest, is helpful; atrophy and fasciculations may be seen and weakness detected. Slight deviation of the protruded tongue as a solitary finding can usually be disregarded, but a major deviation represents under action of the hypoglossal nerve and muscle on that side. The pronunciation of words should be noted. The jaw jerk and the snout, buccal, and sucking reflexes should be sought, particularly if there is a question of dysphagia, dysarthria, or dysphonia.
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Testing of Motor Function
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In the assessment of motor function, the most informative aspects are observations of the speed and strength of movements and of muscle bulk, tone, and coordination and these are considered in the context of the state of tendon reflexes. The maintenance of the supinated arms against gravity is a useful test; the weak arm, tiring first, soon begins to sag, or, in the case of a corticospinal lesion, to resume the more natural pronated position ("pronator drift"). The strength of the legs can be similarly tested with the patient prone and the knees flexed and observing downward drift of the weakened leg. In the supine position at rest, weakness due to an upper motor neuron lesion causes external rotation of the hip.
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It is essential to have the limbs exposed and to inspect them for atrophy and fasciculations. Abnormalities of movement and posture as well as tremors may be revealed by observing the limbs at rest and in motion (see Chaps. 4, 5, and 6). This is accomplished by watching the patient maintain the arms outstretched in the prone and supine positions; perform simple tasks, such as alternately touching his nose and the examiner's finger; make rapid alternating movements that necessitate sudden acceleration and deceleration and changes in direction, such as tapping one hand on the other while alternating pronation and supination of the forearm; rapidly touch the thumb to each fingertip; and accomplish simple tasks such as buttoning clothes, opening a safety pin, or handling common tools. Estimates of the strength of leg muscles with the patient in bed are often unreliable; there may seem to be little or no weakness even though the patient cannot arise from a chair or from a kneeling position without help. Running the heel down the front of the shin, alternately touching the examiner's finger with the toe and the opposite knee with the heel, and rhythmically tapping the heel on the shin are the only tests of coordination that need be carried out in bed.
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Testing of the biceps, triceps, supinator-brachioradialis, patellar, Achilles, and cutaneous abdominal and plantar reflexes permits an adequate sampling of reflex activity of the spinal cord. Elicitation of muscle stretch (tendon) reflexes requires that the involved muscles be relaxed; underactive or barely elicitable reflexes can be facilitated by voluntary contraction of other muscles (Jendrassik maneuver).
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The plantar response poses some difficulty because several different reactions besides the Babinski response can be evoked by stimulating the sole of the foot along its outer border from heel to toes. These are (1) the normal quick, high-level avoidance response that causes the foot and leg to withdraw; (2) the pathologic slower, spinal flexor nocifensive (protective) reflex (flexion of knee and hip and dorsiflexion of toes and foot, "triple flexion"). Dorsiflexion of the large toe and fanning of the other toes as part of the latter reflex is the well-known Babinski sign (see Chap. 3); (3) plantar grasp reflexes; and (4) support reactions in infants. Avoidance and withdrawal responses interfere with the interpretation of the Babinski sign and can sometimes be overcome by utilizing one of several alternative stimuli (e.g., squeezing the calf or Achilles tendon, flicking the fourth toe, downward scraping of the shin, lifting the straight leg, and others) or by having the patient scrape his own sole. An absence of the superficial cutaneous reflexes of the abdominal, cremasteric, and other muscles are useful ancillary tests for detecting corticospinal lesions, particularly when unilateral.
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Testing of Sensory Function
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Because this part of the examination is attainable only through the subjective responses of the patient, it requires considerable patient cooperation. For the same reason, it is subject to overinterpretation and suggestibility. Usually, sensory testing is reserved for the end of the examination and, if the findings are to be reliable, should not be prolonged for more than a few minutes. Each test should be explained briefly; too much discussion with a meticulous, introspective patient encourages the reporting of meaningless minor variations of stimulus intensity.
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It is not necessary to examine all areas of the skin surface. A quick survey of the face, neck, arms, trunk, and legs with a pin takes only a few seconds. Usually one is seeking differences between the two sides of the body (it is better to ask whether stimuli on opposite sides of the body feel the same than to ask if they feel different), a level below which sensation is lost, or a zone of relative or absolute analgesia (loss of pain sensibility) or anesthesia (loss of touch sensibility). Regions of sensory deficit can then be tested more carefully and mapped. Moving the stimulus from an area of diminished sensation into a normal area is recommended because it enhances the perception of a difference. The finding of a zone of heightened sensation ("hyperesthesia") calls attention to a disturbance of superficial sensation.
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The sense of vibration may be tested by comparing the thresholds at which the patient and examiner lose perception at comparable bony prominences. We suggest recording the number of seconds for which the examiner appreciates vibration at the malleolus, toe, or finger after the patient reports that the fork has stopped buzzing.
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Variations in sensory findings from one examination to another reflect differences in technique of examination as well as inconsistencies in the responses of the patient. Sensory testing is considered in greater detail in Chaps. 8 and 9.
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Testing of Gait and Stance
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The examination is completed by observing the patient arise from a chair, stand and walk. An abnormality of stance or gait may be the most prominent or only neurologic abnormality, as in certain cases of cerebellar or frontal lobe disorder; and an impairment of posture and highly automatic adaptive movements in walking may provide the most definite diagnostic clues in the early stages of diseases such as Parkinson disease. Having the patient walk tandem or on the sides of the soles may bring out a lack of balance or dystonic postures in the hands and trunk. Hopping or standing on one foot may also betray a lack of balance or weakness. Standing with feet together and eyes closed will bring out disequilibrium due to sensory loss (Romberg test) that is usually attributable to a disorder of the large diameter sensory fibers in the nerves and posterior columns of the spinal cord. Disorders of gait are discussed in Chap. 7.