Pathological processes in neurology
It is useful to appreciate the ways in which the nervous system malfunctions. This is important clinically because the time course of any pathological process is described by the patient in the history. It also provides a framework for understanding different types of disease, particularly rarer diseases that you might not otherwise know about.
Broadly, pathological processes can be divided into (Fig. 1):
Hint: remember this as SIVE. There is some overlap between these categories.
Systemic
These changes are usually due to metabolic, toxic, nutritional, immunological or endocrine disorders (Table 1).
| Disorder | Clinical syndrome | |
|---|---|---|
| Metabolic | }Metabolic encephalopathy Extrapyramidal syndrome | |
| Toxic | ||
| Nutritional | Neuropathy, myelopathy Neuropathy, Wernicke–Korsakoff encephalopathy | |
| Endocrine | }Myopathy |
