Akinetic mutism and gait disturbance in a patient with delayed post-hypoxic leukoencephalopathy

ABSTRACT

We report on a patient with delayed post-hypoxic leukoencephalopathy (DPHL) who showed akinetic mutism and gait disturbance, neural injuries that were demonstrated on diffusion tensor tractography (DTT). A patient was exposed to carbon monoxide (CO) and rapidly recovered; however, two weeks after onset, he began to show cognitive impairment and gait disturbance. At six weeks after CO exposure, he showed akinetic mutism and gait inability. DTT at 6-weeks post-exposure showed discontinuations in neural connectivities of the caudate nucleus to the medial prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex in both hemispheres. In addition, the corticoreticulospinal tract revealed severe thinning in both hemispheres.

KEYWORDS:

• Delayed post-hypoxic leukoencephalopathy
• hypoxic-ischemic brain injury
• akinetic mutism
• gait disturbance
• diffusion tensor tractography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the results of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) [No. 2022R1F1A1066512].