Abstract
We report a patient with convulsions which occurred in the acute phase of brainstem infarction. The patient was a 72-year-old man. He demonstrated consciousness disturbance and left-side hemiparesis when he was brought to our hospital emergency department. About 15 min later, we observed convulsions in his four extremities. Brief convulsions intermittently occurred over a period of a few days. A brain diffusion weighted MR image revealed a high signal lesion in the right ventral and bilateral dorsal pons. MR angiography disclosed a stenotic lesion in the basilar artery. The patient appeared to exhibit adduction impairment in his right eye. There were no significant pathogenic lesions attributable to convulsions in the cortico-subcortical areas on brain MRI and no significant decrease in cerebral blood flow on the 123I-IMP SPECT findings. We should therefore recognize the possibility of convulsions occurring that are ascribable to brainstem infarction.
