[UA] The Perils of Dipsomancy

[David M Jacobs]

>From http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22496816-13762,00.html:

Binge 'led to four-week hangover'

September 28, 2007 02:00pm
 Article from: Agence France-Presse

It may be the longest hangover in the history of binge beer drinking.

When a 37-year old man walked into a hospital emergency room in Glasgow,
Scotland last October complaining of "wavy" vision and a non-stop headache
that had lasted four weeks, doctors were at first stumped, the British
journal *The Lancet* reported today.

The unnamed patient "had no history of head injury or loss of consciousness;
his past medical record was unremarkable, and he was taking no medications,"
Zia Carrim and two other physicians from Southern General Hospital said in a
case report.

Body temperature and blood pressure were both normal, and a neurological
exam scanned negative.

But when an eye specialist was called in, the fog began to clear, at least
for the doctors.

The patient, said the ophthalmologist, had swollen optical discs, greatly
enlarged blind spots and what eye doctors call "flame haemorrhages," or
bleeding nerve fibres.

"We sought a more detailed history" from the patient, noted one named Zia.

That is when the man revealed he had consumed 60 pints - roughly 35 litres -
of beer over a four day period, following a domestic crisis.

Severe dehydration caused the alcohol, the doctors guessed, had led to a
rare condition called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST).

A scan of the brain's blood vessels confirmed the diagnosis.

CVST - which can cause seizures, impaired consciousness, loss of vision and
neurological damage - strikes three or four people per million, mainly
children, every year in Britain.

The cause is generally unknown.

It took more than six months of long-term blood-thinning treatment to
restore the man's normal vision - and to get rid of the headache, the
doctors reported.


-- 
David M Jacobs
davidmichaeljacobs at gmail.com

"[N]ever hide a gun in a cat box. Some moron cat would manage to fire it."
-- Tim Powers.
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