Geriatric medical practice commonly involves neurologic disorders. Changes that frequently
accompany normal aging often make investigation and evaluation of these disorders
difficult. Hearing loss and cognitive impairment can complicate the elicitation of
an adequate history, just as muscle loss or sensory dysfunction can interfere with
performance of an accurate neurologic examination. Moreover, elderly patients may
have atypical manifestations of various disease states. In a discipline such as neurology,
in which meticulous attention to detail is important, physicians can easily become
frustrated and confused by the findings in an elderly patient with a neurologic complaint.
Because of the difficulty in establishing a diagnosis on the basis of the traditional
history and physical examination, many elderly patients are subjected to various diagnostic
tests, such as lumbar puncture, electromyography, computed tomography, or, more recently,
magnetic resonance imaging, in an attempt to find the cause of their symptoms.
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Mayo Clinic ProceedingsAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
Article Info
Identification
Copyright
© 1990 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
