[Transient achromatopsia caused by cardioembolic brain ischemia]

A 51-year-old right-handed man with dilated cardiomyopathy, sleep apnea and atrial fibrillation suddenly suffered from transient color imperception, which completely recovered next morning. During the attack, both color naming and color pointing were severely disturbed, while he could correctly state the colors of named objects. There were no additional neuropsychological disturbances such as aphasia, alexia and prosopagnosia. Brain MRI revealed a new ischemic change, i.e. laminar cortical necrosis, in the right fusiform gyrus as a causative lesion as well as old asymptomatic infarcts in the left middle cerebral arterial territory. Cardioembolism was considered to be responsible for the development of brain ischemia. The transient achromatopsia is a rarely reported disease and this case appears to support 'ischemia' as its etiology.