[A 81-year-old man with dementia, gait disturbance, hemiparesis, and sympathetic apraxia].

We present a 81-year old male who developed dementia, gait disturbance and right hemiparesis. He was well until the age of 74 when he developed a hemorrhagic infarction in the right occipital region, which left him left homonymous hemianopsia. One year later he had one TIA attack consisting of dizziness, headache, and some clouding of consciousness. At that time, atrial fibrillation was found. At age 79, he was attacked by right hemiparesis. Cranial CT scans revealed a lesion consistent with a hemorrhagic infarct in the left middle cerebral artery territory. Two months prior to his final admission, he had a gradual onset of forgetfulness, labile affect, nocturnal agitation and hallucination which were followed by gait disturbance and urinary incontinence. On admission, he was alert but moderately demented. In addition he showed difficulty in repetition, limb kinetic and ideomotor apraxia of the left hand indicative of sympathetic apraxia, and constructional apraxia bilaterally. Granial nerves appeared intact except for left homonymous hemianopsia. His gait was wide-based and small stepped. No weakness or ataxia was noted. Deep reflexes were diminished on the left side. Plantar reflex was equivocally extensor of the left. Light touch and pain was slightly diminished on the right side. Cranial CT scans revealed a large low density area in the left fronto-temporo-parietal region. Also ventricular dilatation, diffuse low density change in the subcortical white matter, and diffuse cortical atrophy were seen. His clinical course was complicated by melena, anemia, pneumonia, cardiac failure and renal failure. He expired 2 months after his admission.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)