.

Our neurology professor in medical school used to diagnose Parkinson’s by just listening to the patient’s footsteps next door; if we couldn’t do the same, he would fail us. Those were the days before high-tech medicine and MRI.

— The Tell-Tale Brain

As I often tell my students, medicine gives you a certain breadth of vision while at the same time imparting an intensely pragmatic attitude. If your theory is right, your patient gets better. If your theory is wrong—no matter how elegant or convincing it may be—she gets worse or dies. There is no better test of whether you are on the right track or not. And this no-nonsense attitude then spills over into your research as well.

— The Tell-Tale Brain

Carpal tunnel syndrome

How lesions along the visual pathway affect the visual field

Fever, jaundice, and right-upper quadrant abdominal pain (sometimes epigastric)

This triad of signs & symptoms suggests cholengitis (inflammation of the common bile duct) and is present in about two thirds of patients

هذا يسموه Charcot's cholangitis triad
لأن أكو triad ثاني هم اكتشفه Charcot بس ذاك خاص بمرض التصلب المتعدد، يسموه:

Nystagmus, intention tremor, and staccato speech (scanning speech).
This triad is associated with multiple sclerosis.

بالمناسبة، Jean-Martin Charcot جان طبيب فرنسي عاش بالقرن الـ 19. ما بقى مرض لو سالفة بالطب ما حط روحه بيها:
• Charcot joint
• Charcot's triad
• Charcot's other triad
• Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease
• Charcot-Bouchard aneurysm

On history-taking in neurology:

In general, one tends to be careless in estimating the mental capacities of patients. Attempts are sometimes made to take histories from patients who are cognitively impaired or so confused that they have no idea why they are in a doctor’s office or a hospital. Young physicians and students have a natural tendency to “normalize” the patient’s cognitive performance, often collaborating with a hopeful family in the misperception that no real problem exists. This attempt at sympathy does not serve the patient and may delay the diagnosis of a potentially treatable disease. A common error is to pass lightly over inconsistencies in history and inaccuracies about dates and symptoms, only to discover later that these flaws in memory were the essential features of the illness.

Lesions of multiple sclerosis in the brainstem

المرض سموه بهذا الإسم لأنّه يسبب multiple sclerotic lesions in the brain