We report two patients who complained of transient anterograde amnesia and repetitive questioning, that developed after taking zolpidem and lasted for several hours. The clinical manifestations of these patients fulfill the clinical criteria for transient global amnesia (TGA). The typical clinical manifestation of TGA following the consumption of zolpidem suggests a possible relationship associated with its drug mechanism.
Amnesia, Anterograde ; Amnesia, Transient Global ; Humans

No abstract available.
Amnesia, Transient Global* ; Infarction*

No abstract available.
Amnesia, Transient Global ; Gastroscopy

Cases showing memory disturbances with isolated retrograde memory without any definitive brain lesions are classified as dissociative amnesia. Improvements in imaging techniques have allowed the organic causes of this disease to be identified in several recent cases. Several studies have diagnosed cases of memory disorders as pure retrograde amnesia (PRA). The patient reported here had no psychiatric disorder and had normal MRI results, but showed hypometabolism in PET that met the criteria for PRA.
Amnesia ; Amnesia, Retrograde ; Brain ; Humans ; Memory ; Memory Disorders

A 44-year-old man showed recurrent paroxysmal amnesic attacks following viral encephalitis which, despite antiepileptic treatment, developed into status epilepticus. Interestingly, the amnesic attacks mainly consisted of amnesia for retrograde events. After recovery from status, he showed a persistent amnesia which was characterized as disproportionate retrograde amnesia for the past 20 years. We attribute the amnesic attacks in the acute stage to a transient epileptic amnesia and the profound retrograde amnesia in the chronic stage to status- or infection-related focal brain damage.
Adult ; Amnesia ; Amnesia, Retrograde* ; Brain ; Encephalitis, Viral* ; Humans ; Status Epilepticus

Background and purpose: Transient global amnesia (TGA) is a rare amnestic syndrome characterized by the sudden onset of a selective anterograde and retrograde amnesia with a time course of up to 24 hours. Recent studies have found a high frequency of small high-signal abnormalities in the hippocampus on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and accordingly ischemia has been proposed as an etiology of TGA. We hypothesized that TGA lesions occur preferentially in the CA1 region of the hippocampus, which is known to be susceptible to ischemia. Methods: Twenty consecutive patients with a clinical diagnosis of TGA underwent DWI both within 24 hours of symptom onset and 3 days later. Twenty patients with high-signal abnormalities in the hippocampus on the initial DWI underwent subsequent DWI and T2-weighted imaging in the coronal plane to precisely localize the lesions. Results: Seventeen patients had small high-signal abnormalities (with diameters of 1-3 mm) in the hippocampus unilaterally on DWI. One of these patients had two lesions in one hippocampus. Three of the 20 patients had lesions bilaterally in the hippocampus, 1 of whom had 3 bilateral lesions. A total of 25 lesions were identified: 5 in the hippocampal head, 19 in the body, and 1 in the tail. Six patients had unilateral lesions on the left,11 patients had them on the right, and 3 patients had bilateral lesions. Conclusions: In this study, lesions associated with TGA were localized mostly to the lateral portion of the hippocampus, corresponding to CA1. This finding supports the ischemic etiology of TGA, but the underlying pathophysiologic mechanism requires further investigation.
Amnesia, Retrograde ; Amnesia, Transient Global ; Head ; Hippocampus ; Humans ; Ischemia

No abstract available.
Amnesia, Transient Global* ; Humans ; Writing*

Localized amnesia is characterized by a failure to recall events that occurred during a circumscribed period of time. Localized amnesia is the most common type of dissociative amnesia. It is assumed that this is a disorder of memory retrieval. Recent neuroimaing studies reported that posterior cingulate cortex may play a important role in memory(autobiographical) retrieval. The authors reported a case of localized amnesia with mass on left posterior cingulate cortex.
Amnesia* ; Gyrus Cinguli* ; Humans ; Memory

We report a case of profound amnesia, anterograde and retrograde, in a patient, who had been premedicated with midazolam and underwent a posterior fusion of the cervical spine under inhalation anesthesia. The patient's memory was restored immediately after intravenous injections of the benzodiazepine antagonist flumazenil.
Amnesia ; Amnesia, Anterograde ; Amnesia, Retrograde* ; Anesthesia, Inhalation ; Benzodiazepines ; Flumazenil* ; Humans ; Injections, Intravenous ; Memory ; Midazolam* ; Spine

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Transient global amnesia (TGA) is a stereotypic condition characterized by anterograde and retrograde amnesia that typically resolves within 24 hours. The pathophysiology of TGA is still unclear. We noted that patients hospitalized with TGA tend to appear in seasonal clusters, and decided to investigate this phenomenon. METHODS: Every patient with acute presentation of amnesia at our medical center is hospitalized for observation and evaluation. We reviewed the monthly occurrence of TGA in our patient population between 2000 and 2014, and compared this to non-TGA hospitalizations during the same time period. RESULTS: During the analysis period, 154 patients who met the criteria for TGA were hospitalized, as well as 259,007 non-TGA hospitalizations. The annual occurrence of TGA ranged from 5 to 16 hospitalizations. There were 91 TGA events in women and 63 in men, in subjects aged 62.8±10.6 years (mean±SD). The incidence was maximal during December [odds ratio (OR)=2.83, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.20–6.67] and March (OR=2.77, 95% CI=1.17–6.56), and minimal from April to August. The incidence exhibited an increase followed by a decrease from October to February. A seasonal trend was observed as well, with incidence peaks occurring in winter (OR=1.82, 95% CI=1.12–2.96) and spring (OR=1.80, 95% CI=1.10–2.94). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the incidence of TGA exhibits seasonal variations. This observation may help to improve the understanding of the pathophysiology underlying TGA.
Amnesia ; Amnesia, Retrograde ; Amnesia, Transient Global* ; Female ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Incidence* ; Male ; Seasons*