The Interpretation of Neurological Symptoms and Signs

Abstract

The clinical diagnosis of neurological disease requires a particularly detailed analysis of patients’ symptoms. This is partly because the nervous system is a communications system with direct access to consciousness, so that the patient is in a unique position to monitor his own disorder. Clinical diagnosis becomes very difficult in the presence of dysphasia, confusion or dementia. Another reason is that useful biochemical and histological information about the function of neurons is rarely available, in contrast to the wealth of data used in the assessment of diseases of other organs, such as the lungs, liver or kidneys. The failure of neurons in the CNS to regenerate means that delay in making a precise diagnosis can worsen the eventual outcome; the clinician often cannot afford to watch how an illness progresses before intervening.