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Review
. 2024 Mar;24(2):100037.
doi: 10.1016/j.clinme.2024.100037. Epub 2024 Apr 5.

Diagnostic challenges of focal neurological deficits during an acute take-Is this vascular?: Clinical hints, pearls and pitfalls

Shadi M Ramadan  1 , Rayessa Rayessa  2 , Bernard Esisi  2
Affiliations
Review

Diagnostic challenges of focal neurological deficits during an acute take-Is this vascular?: Clinical hints, pearls and pitfalls

Shadi M Ramadan et al. Clin Med (Lond). 2024 Mar.

Abstract

Stroke and TIAs are amongst the common neurological presentations encountered by specialists and non-specialist health care providers. Despite the advances of neuroimaging techniques, clinicians are frequently faced with diagnostic challenges on evaluation of patients with suspected stroke. In this review, we discuss the characteristic features of cerebrovascular diseases and how to identify them. We also aim to provide a resource for non-stroke specialist clinicians to help them to correctly identify the symptoms and signs of disorders that may masquerade as stroke such as migraine, seizure, and functional disorder, and at the same time we explore how we can identify strokes that present atypically.

Keywords: Focal neurological deficit; Stroke chameleons; Stroke mimics.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organisation or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matters or materials discussed in this manuscript.

References

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