Re: Left arm jerking

Posted By Robert Twichell on June 18, 1999 at 09:10:52
Had a small stroke in early March, left arm, hand, leg numbness for a few minutes. MRI showed a small amount of damage in brain. Am on Plavix(75 mg), Lipitor (20 mg), Hydrochlorothiazide (25mg).
No symptoms now other than muscle weakness, and a left arm jerk in response ro any sudden noise. The jerk is maybe 2 inches. Yesterday one happened in steering the auto causing the car to swerve into the oncoming traffice lane. The cause was a cough of one of the passengers! Fortunately there were no cars  in the oncoming lane.
What is causing the sudden left arm jerk? Should anything be done? What?

[CCF Neuro[P] MD RPS]

Posted By CCF Neuro[P] MD, RPS on June 18, 1999 at 16:29:44
Dear Robert:
Sorry to hear about your stroke.  It sounds like you may have stimulus induced myoclonus.  It is difficult to say, without looking at the MRI whether this will improve.  One of the things that you will have to do, as you already have done is to know in what situations the left arm jerk will occur and try to prevent accidents from happening.  I guess you'll become a right handed coffee drinker.  I would see your neurologist for a couple of reasons.  First, the jerk may be correlated to abnormal brain activity, seizure-like event.  They may be due to the brain healing and therefore temporary.  They may be due to the hypoxic event during the stroke and not related to abnormal brain activity.  There are medications that can be used, in some cases, and he/she would be the one to follow the levels and the dosing. So depending on the etiology, medication might be a problem solver.  Let us know what happens.
Sincerely,
CCF Neuro MD










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