[Hypoglycemic states in the clinical picture of emergency neuropathology]

The authors made a clinico-electrophysiological analysis of hypoglycemic conditions in 20 patients admitted to the clinic with acute cerebral symptomatology. They describe the following neurological symptoms developing in hypoglycemia: paroxysmal disturbances of consciousness, including epileptic seizures; pseudostrokes; pseudotumours; comatose states. The paper presents criteria of the differentiation between primary cerebral disorders and neuroglycopenic symptoms of hypoglycemic conditions. These criteria include the development of consciousness disturbances in morning and after long intervals between meals, excessive weakness for sweets, fluctuations of the degree of focal and general cerebral symptoms from mild lipothymic states to the development of pronounced focal neurological symptomatology, the presence of high amplitude slow wave activity at all EEG leads and the efficacy of the intravenous administration of glucose. It has been shown that hypoglycemia may manifest itself by various cerebral disorders and that the development of recurrent hypoglycemic states may be responsible for secondary metabolic encephalopathy with various focal neurological symptomatology.