- A dictionary of medical eponyms

Gerstmann's syndrome

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Disease of the association area of the dominant parietal lobe of the brain with characteristic clinical picture. Symptoms are finger agnosia (lacking or impaired ability to describe the fingers), agraphia (lacking or impaired ability to write), right-left disorientation, dysphragia; dyscalculia/acalculia (lack of ability to calculate). The patient has difficulty in recognizing, naming, selecting, and differentiating the fingers of either of his hands or those of others. In addition, there is inability to recognize the sides of his body, to write words or sentences, and to perform even simple calculations. Orientation for place and person is not affected, but time orientation may be somewhat disturbed. The general psychic condition of the patient is good. It is debated whether this is really an independent syndromic entity.

Bibliography

  • J. Badal:
    Influence du diamètre de la pupille et des cercles de diffusion sur l’acuité visuelle. Paris, 1888.
  • J. Gerstmann:
    Fingeragnosie: Eine umschriebene Störung der Orientierung am eigenen Körper.
    Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift, 1924, 37: 1010-1012.
    Translation in Archives of Neurology, Chicago, 1971, 24: 475-476. Fingeragnosie und isolierte Agraphie - ein neues Syndrom.
    Zentralblatt für Nervenheilkunde, 1927, 108: 152. Zur lokaldiagnostischen Verwertbarkeit des Syndroms: Fingeragnosie. Rechts-Links-Störung. Agraphie. Akalkulie.
    Jahrbücher für Psychiatrie und Neurologie, Leipzig, 1932, 48: 135. Some notes on the Gerstmann syndrome.
    Neurology, Cleveland, Ohio, 1957, 7: 866-869.
  • MacDonald Critchley (1900-1997):
    The enigma of Gerstmann’s syndrome. Brain, Oxford, 1966, 89 (part 2): 183-198.

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