A team of medical scientists led by Lionel Feuillet, MD from the University of the Mediterranean, reported a surprisingly severe case of hydrocephalus. Interestingly, the diagnosis was made quite by accident and simply shocked the doctors. The patient, however, did not even know about his illness, and it did not prevent him from leading a full life
The large dark area is actually a void in the brain.
The story began when a 44-year-old patient came to the hospital with a minor complaint of weakness in his leg. However, after a series of brain examinations were carried out, the doctors were shocked.
Computed tomography showed that the patient has huge cavities in the brain filled with fluid. It turns out that they, in fact, replace a significant part of the brain matter. According to Feyet, in this case we are talking about significantly expanded ventricles - cavities in the brain.
Several more images of the same patient's brain. Interestingly, in many pathologies associated with a small brain mass, there are no significant disorders. This is due to the fact that with such a mass, there are no significant changes in the structure of the brain. In this case, the mass of the brain substance is small, but the structural deformations are simply impressive. The very fact that a person with such an anomaly is alive (not to mention good health) can be called a miracle
There is cerebrospinal fluid inside the ventricles of the brain of any person, which protects the brain from mechanical damage. If its outflow is disturbed, then it becomes the cause of the disease of hydrocephalus (also known as dropsy of the brain). In this case, the pressure of the fluid increases, which leads to an increase in the volume of the ventricles. This pathology is accompanied by neurological disorders, leading to a variety of disorders affecting both thought processes and the motor sphere. One of these violations is limb weakness, which the aforementioned citizen felt.
However, this case turned out to be downright fantastic. According to Feuillet, this patient has "virtually no brain." With hydrocephalic syndrome, there is an obvious dependence: the more the ventricles are dilated, the stronger the disturbances. However, this story is surprising in that no noticeable secondary pathologies were found in this case. As doctors say, with such a degree of development of the disease, mental abilities should suffer significantly. As the tests showed, the patient's general intelligence - IQ - is 75, verbal - 84, non-verbal - 70. These are really not very large values, but in general they are above the lower limit of the norm, which usually coincides with a value of 70.
Interestingly, the disease did not in any way affect the social adaptation of this person: he has a family, two children, and he holds the position of a civil servant. But even more interesting is that, according to Feyer, after completing the course of treatment, the patient recovered, although repeated scans showed no decrease in the volume of the brain cavities. The researcher presented these and other details together with his colleagues in the Lancet magazine, Membrana reports.
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According to Dr. Feuillet, this person was treated for hydrocephalus at the age of 6 months, and then again at the age of 14. However, after that, the hydrocephalus continued to progress without harming the development of the nervous system. “This episode is unique to science,” added Feuillet. "We have never had to deal with such a severe case of hydrocephalus."