The Transient Global Amnesia Syndrome

Abstract

On basis of 35 patients who have suffered from transient global amnesia the pathophysiological mechanisms of this syndrome are discussed. Our impression is that the primary cause of this syndrome is a transient ischemia of the hippocampus, an opinion common with most earlier authors. The possibility of a unilateral hippocampal disturbance resulting in transient global amnesia is discussed. We are inclined to regard the local hippocampal ischemia as arising from insufficiency of the anterior chorioidal artery and thus as a sequel of internal carotid insufficiency, which has earlier been proved to result from various rotatory, flexion, and extension movements of the neck.

Weather conditions and transient global amnesia

“…The present study reproduces fairly the demographic features of previous extensive studies concerning age distribution (60-to-70-year) [25][26][27][28][29][30][31] and the mean age at onset of TGA (62.67 + 9.21 years) [1,17,28,[30][31][32] There was a slight preponderance of women (sex ratio, 1.4), as already observed by others [24,25,[29][30][31][33][34][35], but this finding probably reflects the overpresentation of women among the elderly in our city. As confirmed by previous studies, the mean duration of TGA attacks was about 4 hours [5,6,18] and attacks lasting more than 12 hours were exceptional.…”

Transient global amnesia as a manifestation of transient cerebral ischemia

“…Transient global amnesia (TGA) is a nosographically well-defined condition characterized by a sudden short-term memory defect in elderly people with inability to lay down new memory traces for a circumscribed period, but according to earlier observations without any other significant intellectual or neurological symptoms (Benson et al 1974, Evans 1966, Fisher & Adams 1964. The results of most recent investigations (Fogelholm et al 1975, Heathfield et al 1973, Mathew & Meyer 1974, Mumenthaler & von Roll 1969, Rowan & Protass 1979 have suggested that pathophysiologically TGA is probably the result of transient ischemia affecting the hippocampal formation and other parts of the limbic system related to memory functions.…”

Impairment of neuromuscular transmission in transient global amnesia – Does it really exist?

“…The presumption that TGA is caused by transient dysfunction of the hippocampi which are involved in creating episodic memory is not controversial but the cause of this dysfunction remains unclear. The main hypotheses regarding TGA mechanisms are ischemia in hippocampal structures, epileptic genesis, and migraine [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”