You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
A patient that changed my practice
Delayed diagnosis of spinal cord injuries in Huntington’s disease
  1. Hamish D Morrison1,2,
  2. Dafydd Morgan3,
  3. Duncan J McLauchlan4,5,
  4. Catherine Clenaghan4,
  5. Anne E Rosser4,6
  1. 1 Neurology, North Bristol NHS Trust, Westbury on Trym, UK
  2. 2 Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
  3. 3 Neurology, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, UK
  4. 4 Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff, UK
  5. 5 Neurology, Swansea Bay University Health Board, Port Talbot, UK
  6. 6 Brain Repair And Intracranial Neurotherapeutics (BRAIN) Unit, Cardiff University Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Hamish D Morrison, Neurology, North Bristol NHS Trust, Westbury on Trym, UK; hamish.morrison{at}nhs.net

Abstract

Huntington’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder, characterised by progressive cognitive, motor and psychiatric symptoms. Patients with advanced disease presenting to emergency medical services can pose a diagnostic and management challenge for physicians unfamiliar with the condition. We describe two patients with Huntington’s disease in whom the diagnosis of traumatic spinal cord injury was delayed, discuss the role that cognitive bias and other factors played in this delay, and the lessons we can learn.

  • Huntington's

https://doi.org/10.1136/practneurol-2020-002854

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors HDM and DM drafted the manuscript and prepared the final submission. DJM, CC and AER undertook patient care and assessment and revised the manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned. Externally peer reviewed by Ed Wild, London, UK.

    Linked Articles

    • Editors’ commentary
      Highlights from this issue
      Geraint N Fuller Phil E M Smith
      Practical Neurology 2021; 21 183-183 Published Online First: 17 May 2021. doi: 10.1136/practneurol-2021-003071

    Other content recommended for you