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J H Margerison

Publications and source records attributed to J H Margerison.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

The EEG in Huntington's chorea: a clinical and neuropathological study.

The EEGs are reported on a group of 95 patients with Huntington's chorea. Thirty one showed little activity of any kind, and in particular no alpha rhythm above 10 μV in amplitude was seen. Only those records which still met these criteria when re-examined were included in the `low voltage' category. EEGs in this category occurred significantly more frequently in institutionalized patients and in those with a positive family history of Huntington's chorea, dementia, and choreiform movements together. Computer averaged responses to light and sound were found in the three patients examined, though their routine EEGs were low voltage. Neuropathological examination confirmed a clinical diagnosis of Huntington's chorea in 14 patients investigated. There was a statistically significant association between cortical atrophy, including the frontal lobe, and a `low voltage' EEG. It was concluded that the low voltage record, though not specific for Huntington's chorea, was rare in other neurological disorders. The EEG is therefore of value in patients suspected of having Huntington's chorea as well as in various presenile dementias.

Adult

Electroencephalographic prediction of fatal anoxic brain damage after resuscitation from cardiac arrest.

Ninety-three electroencephalograms (E.E.G.s) were recorded within a week of cardiac resuscitation from 41 patients in whom the subsequent outcome was known to be either recovery of cerebral function or death with associated pathological evidence of gross anoxic brain damage. A statistical analysis of observations on these E.E.G.s yielded a discriminant function for predicting death or survival. Predictions based on each of the 93 individual E.E.G.s would have been correct in 92 and at a confidence level better than 99%. The same discriminant function was found to be applicable to a further 19 patients who died but did not undergo neuropathological studies and to 33 others in whom the clinical picture was complicated by such factors as uraemia or head injury. Thus it seems that the presence or absence of fatal brain damage after cardiac arrest can be reliably predicted from E.E.G.s taken within a week of resuscitation. An estimate of the probability of survival is now routinely included in the clinical report on each E.E.G. taken after cardiac arrest.

Adolescent