Delayed leukoencephalopathy after carbon monoxide poisoning presenting as subacute dementia

Intern Med. 2014;53(13):1441-5. doi: 10.2169/internalmedicine.53.2132. Epub 2014 Jun 15.

Abstract

We herein report the case of a 65-year-old woman who presented with the subacute onset of dementia and subsequently developed abnormal behavior and a gait disturbance. Her condition transiently improved; however, within one month, she became drowsy and poorly responsive, with limb chorea and urinary incontinence. Her history of frequently using charcoal led us to diagnose her with carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. The findings of this case and a literature review suggest that subacute dementia due to CO poisoning recovers late, after a year or more, in patients above sixty years of age, and both hyperbaric oxygen and corticosteroid pulse therapy should be considered in such cases, even after one month.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adrenal Cortex Hormones / therapeutic use
  • Aged
  • Brain / diagnostic imaging
  • Brain / pathology
  • Carbon Monoxide Poisoning / complications*
  • Carbon Monoxide Poisoning / diagnosis*
  • Carbon Monoxide Poisoning / therapy
  • Cysteine / analogs & derivatives
  • Dementia / etiology*
  • Female
  • Gait
  • Humans
  • Hyperbaric Oxygenation
  • Leukoencephalopathies / etiology*
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Movement Disorders / etiology
  • Organotechnetium Compounds
  • Radiopharmaceuticals
  • Time Factors
  • Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon

Substances

  • Adrenal Cortex Hormones
  • Organotechnetium Compounds
  • Radiopharmaceuticals
  • technetium Tc 99m bicisate
  • Cysteine