Today I examined a 24 year old patient who had experienced a
stroke at birth. The stroke had damaged the left side of her
brain such that the right body was affected. There was marked
hypoplasia of the right extremities, particularly the right arm
and hand. What is the mechanism for this? Is it just the
decrease in trophic signals to the muscles resulting from
neuronal destruction? Besides the hypoplasia, the patient had
few other deficits that could be picked up with the naked eye.
I was amazed!! At this rate, I may end up wanting to be a
neurologist--admittedly, I have a lot more to learn but I find
it very interesting!!
--
Mallory L. McClure, University of Virginia School of Medicine class of 1997
(Brown University class of 1992)
mlm2s at virginia.edu
