Unusual association of diseases/symptoms
Sleep disruption following paramedian pontine stroke
1 Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Centro di Medicina dell’Invecchiamento, Largo Agostino Gemelli 8, Rome 00168, Italy
2 Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Istituto di Neurologia, Largo Agostino Gemelli 8, Rome 00168, Italy
3 Università Campus Biomedico, Divisione di Geriatria, Largo Agostino Gemelli 8, Rome 00168, Italy
4 Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Centro di Medicina dell’Invecchiamento, Largo Agostino Gemelli 8, Rome 00168, Italy
Correspondence to:
Matteo Tosato, mtosato{at}gmail.com
Pontine structures are critical for the generation of rapid eye movement sleep but there are only a few reports of the effects of focal pontine lesions on sleep patterns in humans. We report the case of an 81-year-old man admitted for the acute onset of disordered speech and motor deficit in the upper right arm who developed hypersomnia within a week. A 24-hour polysomnographic study revealed a very severe disruption of both circadian rhythm and sleep organisation, and a brain MRI documented an ischaemic lesion of the anterior left paramedian portion of the pons. Our observation suggests that even small, paramedian pontine ischaemic lesions can acutely induce a very severe sleep disorder.
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full text of all Editor's Choice articles and summaries of every article are free without registration
The full text of Images in ... articles are free to registered users
Only fellows can access the full text of case reports (apart from Editor's Choice) - become a fellow today, or encourage your institution to, so that together we can grow and develop this resource
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the case reports as they are published, and let us know what you think by commenting on the Editor's blog
