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Reminder of important clinical lesson
Hypophosphataemia as a cause of acute confusional state
  1. Sean Ninan1,
  2. David Lloyd1,
  3. Manoj Saraswat2
  1. 1Hull Royal Infirmary, Hull, UK
  2. 2Medicine for the Elderly, Castle Hill Hospital, Hull, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Sean Ninan, sean9n{at}hotmail.com

Summary

A 74-year-old gentleman presented with an acute onset of confusion and agitation. His symptoms were so severe that he had to be sedated and intubated for CT scan. All investigations were unremarkable, except a low serum phosphate. He was treated with intravenous phosphate and his symptoms improved in line with the rise in his serum phosphate. By discharge, he had returned to his previous state of health. The cause of the hypophosphataemia was not apparent; we have asked his general practitioner to monitor his serum phosphate.

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