A Dictionary of Neurological Signs

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. A

   Pages 1-33

3. B

   Pages 34-42

4. C

   Pages 43-56

5. D

   Pages 57-72

6. E

   Pages 73-78

7. F

   Pages 79-89

8. G

   Pages 90-94

9. H

   Pages 95-112

10. I

    Pages 113-117

11. J

    Pages 118-120

12. K

    Pages 121-123

13. L

    Pages 124-128

14. M

    Pages 129-141

15. N

    Pages 142-148

16. O

    Pages 149-156

17. P

    Pages 157-180

18. Q

    Pages 181-181

19. R

    Pages 182-189

20. S

    Pages 190-203

Neurology has always been a discipline in which careful physical examination is paramount. The rich vocabulary of neurology replete with eponyms attests to this historically. The decline in the importance of the examination has long been predicted with the advent of more detailed neuroimaging. However, neuroimaging has often provided a surfeit of information from which salient features have to be identified, dependent upon the neurological examination. A dictionary of neurological signs has a secure future. A dictionary should be informative but unless it is unwieldy, it cannot be comprehensive, nor is that claimed here. Andrew Larner has decided sensibly to include key features of the history as well as the examination. There is no doubt that some features of the history can strike one with the force of a physical sign. There are entries for “palinopsia” and “environmental tilt” both of which can only be elicited from the history and yet which have considerable significance. There is also an entry for the “head turning sign” observed during the history taking itself as well as the majority of entries relating to details of the physical examination. This book is directed to students and will be valuable to medical students, trainee neurologists, and professions allied to medicine. Neurologists often speak in shorthand and so entries such as “absence” and “freezing” are sensible and helpful.

• biology
• care
• diagnosis
• neurobiology
• neurology
• patients
• treatment
• urology

`...a great wealth of information has been amassed and collated and often complex topics distilled with consistent clarity. While partially concerned with objective physical signs, subjective symptoms of special anatomical of pathological significance are included, each has a semiological significance...The book's principal strength is its structured approach and the author's skill in achieving a succinct definition of each sign, a brief account of the clinical technique required for it to be elicited, a description of other neurological signs that may accompany the index sign and, where known, a brief account of its basis in terms of neuro-anatomy, pathophysiology, pharmacology and neuropathology.'
Brain, 126:2 (February 2003)

• Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Liverpool, UK

  A.J. Larner

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