Case ReportAcute Amnesia due to Isolated Mammillary Body Infarct
Section snippets
Case Report
A 50-year-old woman with hypertension, diabetes, and previously normal behavior was brought to the emergency room by her daughter with acute onset of confusion. She was constantly repeating the same questions and had difficulty forming new memories. She could recall that a plumber came to her house the morning of admission but she did not recall him leaving.
On arrival, her temperature was 37°, blood pressure was 142/82 mm Hg, and her heart rate was 77 and regular. On mental status testing, she
Discussion
The mammillary bodies lie at the posterior margin of the hypothalamus and are a part of the circuit of Papez, which also includes the hippocampal formation, anterior thalamus, cingulate gyrus, and their interconnections. Although Papez originally suggested that this pathway was the basis for emotion, current understanding suggests that it has a unique role in memory and cognition.1
Within this network of structures involved in memory, the anterior thalamic nuclei and the direct
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Cited by (0)
The work was performed at the Department of Neuroradiology, Columbia University Medical Center, 622 West 168th Street, PB 1-301, New York, NY 10032.
The authors declare that they did not receive any grant support, have nothing to disclose, have no author contributions, and have no conflict of interest.