[Transient global amnesia: a review of 58 cases]

Transient global amnesia (TGA) is a clinical condition in which the etiopathogenesis is still not clear. The most generally accepted theory is of a vascular origin, although epilepsy or migraine have also been considered to possibly be the cause.

To make a retrospective review of the risk factors, etiopathogenesis and clinical characteristics of 58 patients with TGA.

The variables recorded were compared with those from two control groups: one of healthy individuals and one of patients with transient ischemic attacks (TIA).

The average age of the patients with TGA was 66.01 years. The risk factors included: arterial hypertension (58.62%), dyslipemia (15.51%) and migraine (8.62%). In three patients the EEG showed weak bilateral frontotemporal interference. Cerebral CT scans were done in all cases and were found to be pathological in 23, with lacunar multinfarct the commonest abnormality. With regard to patients with TIA, these were older (66.01 vs 72.94), smoked more (1.72% vs 12.06%) and a previous stroke was more frequent (8.62% vs 31.03%). We did not find differences regarding dyslipemia, atrial fibrillation, arterial hypertension or cardiac ischemia. However, the prevalence of vascular risk factors was significantly higher in patients with TGA as compared to healthy controls.

We suggest that the etiopathogenesis of TGA is probably a transient ischemic phenomenon triggered (or not) following an attack of migraine.