Over 3 decades ago, before MRI scanning was readily availble, I identified rather
simple criteria for the diagnosis of Transient Global Amnesia (TGA) in a letter to
the editor [
[1]
]. (1) The attack onset should have been witnessed. (2) Dysfunction during the attack
should have been limited to repetitive queries and amnesia. (3) There should have
been no other major neurologic signs or symptoms. (4) The memory loss should have
been transient, usually lasting hours or up to one day. Before then I had reviewed
>500 published cases of TGA for the Handbook of Neurology [
[2]
] and seen many patients with amnesia. Four years later Hodges and Warlow elaborated
a bit on my criteria [
[3]
]. These criteria are noted in the present review and the reference is cited. My purpose
in creating criteria was to characterize an entity that was benign and required no
advanced imaging or prophylactic treatment. All the patients who met all of these
criteria that I had seen or reviewed had not had strokes. None developed strokes in
the ensuing follow-up periods. None had serious neurological conditions such as tumors,
epilepsy, or degenerative conditions.Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Journal of the Neurological SciencesAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Transient global amnesia: criteria and classification.Neurology. 1986; 36: 441
- Transient global amnesia.in: Vinken P. Bruyn G. Handbook of Clinical Neurology. vol. 1. Elsevier Publishing Co, Amsterdam1985: 205-218 (46): Frederick, J. (ed)
- Syndromes of transient amnesia: towards a classification. A study of 153 cases.J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry. 1990 Oct; 53: 834-843
- Diffusion-weighted MRI in transient global amnesia and its diagnostic implications.Neurology. 2020; 95: e206-e212
- Transient global amnesia with unexpected clinical and radiological findings: a case series and systematic review.J. Neurol. Sci. 2022;
- What’s in a name? (TGA).Neurology. 1986; 36: 1625-1626
- Transient Global Amnesia, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.2012
Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 21, 2022
Accepted:
July 19,
2022
Received:
June 21,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V.
