Appropriate neurological evaluation and multimodality magnetic resonance imaging in eclampsia

Simultanagnosia is common in eclampsia and a visuospatial test may be the most appropriate method in assessing the degree and monitoring of neurological deficit.

To determine a sensitive clinical test for the degree of neurological deficit in eclampsia and in monitoring neurological change.

Thirty women with eclampsia were evaluated by clinical neurological quantitative scales including the Canadian Neurological Scale, Glasgow Coma Scale, Mini-Mental State Examination, a validated Cookie Theft Picture Test (CTPT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (T1/T2), diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA).

The CTPT, used to measure simultanagnosia, had a sensitivity of 100% (95% CI: 84.5-100), specificity of 33.3% (95% CI: 1.8-87.5) with positive predictive value of 93.1% (95% CI: 75.8-98.8) and negative predictive value of 100% (95% CI: 5.5-100). The degree of agreement between simultanagnosia as measured by CTPT and DWI was 93.3% (Kappa=0.474; P=0.001). Standard MRI compared with DWI had a sensitivity of 77.8% (95% CI: 57.3-90.6), specificity of 100% (95% CI: 31-100), positive predictive value of 100% (95% CI: 80.8-100) and negative predictive value of 33.3% (95% CI: 9-69.1). The degree of agreement between standard MRI and DWI was 90%, this was statistically significant (Kappa=0.412: P=0.001).

The validated CTPT for simultanagnosia was abnormal in the majority (n=29; 96.7%) of eclamptic patients with other neurological scales normal. Standard MRI and DWI showed excellent correlation with this simple bedside clinimetric evaluation. The oedema in eclampsia is primarily of vasogenic origin.