UKH

Has anyone seen this? (aphasia or dysphasia is a difficulty with word finding or producing speech - its not slurred speech)

Transient high altitude expressive aphasia

Transient focal neurological deficits have been described in sojourners to high altitude. We present two cases of transient expressive aphasia in well-acclimatized high altitude climbers. We speculate that this type of transient focal neurological impairment may represent migraine aura, and we discuss other reports of transient focal neurological deficit at high altitude.

(I should say I am a neurologist)

In reply to philipjardine:

I have just been told that Frank Smythe had it.  Any one know more?

In reply to philipjardine:

Who, please, is “we”?

In reply to McHeath:

sorry.  "we" is these 2 authors

Transient high altitude expressive aphasia

T E Dietz  1 , V H McKiel

Transient focal neurological deficits have been described in sojourners to high altitude. We present two cases of transient expressive aphasia in well-acclimatized high altitude climbers. We speculate that this type of transient focal neurological impairment may represent migraine aura, and we discuss other reports of transient focal neurological deficit at high altitude.

In reply to philipjardine:

Where can we read this?

In reply to McHeath:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11254230/

but I can't find full text through my library accounts

In reply to philipjardine:

YHM

b

In reply to philipjardine:

Renan Ozturk experienced this in the film Meru.

In reply to mickyv33:

another reference!  thank you

In reply to philipjardine:

a friend had transient visual disturbance. I think he described it best as a diplopia, but I may be wrong and may have been a migrainous scotoma like phenomenon. 

In reply to philipjardine:

A friend had focal, resolving visual disturbance. I think he described it more as diplopia but I can ask if it has any migrainous scotoma like component. 

In reply to James Gordon:

I hadn't realised that a variety of transient, focal neurological deficits have been described in people at altitude including visual ones.  These seem to be distinct from AMS/HACE and often occur in well acclimatised people with no other signs of raised intracranial pressure although headache seems a common accompaniment.  The mechanisms seem unclear but low CO2 causing cerebral vasoconstriction seems possible especially as the deficits seem to involve watershed areas (vision/speech).  I would be fascinated to hear of other accounts and will email you.

In reply to philipjardine:

I had a weird experience on summit day on Lenin Peak. It felt like I was losing all sense of "self". Not sure how else to describe it. I struggled to form coherent sentences. My consciousness felt trapped deep within, but it was functioning enough to tell me that something was very wrong. Felt like a far away voice though. Physically I was fine, still moving uphill and didn't feel too fatigued (given the circumstances). Anyway, I got to the top and back down to Camp 3, at which point the symptoms disappeared and I could talk properly again. Very odd.

In reply to Strife:

if you google "depersonalisation" see if that fits.  I am sure I have seen that in one of the reports.  Will look

In reply to Strife:

this is in one of the reports:

A 26-year-old, right-handed, Caucasian woman experienced an episode of expressive aphasia while trekking at about 5400 m. She was unable to speak, and described a vivid sense of depersonalization, stating that she felt as though her legs were moving effortlessly,that she was not quite in her body, and she recalled thinking in a detached manner “maybe I will die today.”

In reply to philipjardine:

I experienced this 20 years ago on my first 4000m peak. I couldn’t be sure of the names of my climbing partners who were my two best mates! I was otherwise moving well enough. When my brain came up with their names (correctly) they didn’t seem right. Very strange. Nowadays I often experience a similar difficulty recalling things but can’t blame the altitude!  

In reply to Harry Ellis:

Well you have something in common with Eric Shipton.  See end of Chapter 7 "Upon that mountain"

In reply to philipjardine:

Yep, I can relate to that! Symptoms started at about 6800m. My thought process was "hmmm this is a weird feeling, maybe I'm dying, maybe I should go down, oh well". There was no sense of worry or urgency. And I didn't know how to verbalise it so I just kept floating up the mountain instead.

Altitude does funny things to the body and mind!

In reply to Strife:

I was thinking about Dick Renshaw, who pulled out of the ill-fated '82 Everest NE Ridge expedition after a possible stroke. Given Charles Clarke was on the expedition it's also entirely likely that it was a stroke of course - having a neurologist who specialises in high altitude medicine on the other end of the rope probably helps!

b 

In reply to James Gordon:

Pretty sure it was high altitude retinopathy, monocular nearly hemianopia.

In reply to nickinscottishmountains:

Gotcha, sorry to misquote. 

In reply to Strife:

Probably just the Communism.

In reply to philipjardine: Yes exactly happened to me once four years ago January Nepal. I was at around 4000m. No problem with acclimatisation, no headache or other symptoms. I couldn’t think of the word ‘sleeping bag’, nor colour ‘yellow’ when I looked at the bag or my boots. I was at the end of an ordinary trek day going to bed, winter Nepal. After 10 minutes the words came back to me and I then slept. I put it down as a TIA and accepted it. Nothing ever before then nor since. It gave me a little fright at the time and for the past three years I occasionally say the words ‘sleeping bag, Oly Mons, Spantiks, yellow’ before sleeping. Even now here in Nepal for the past 14 months, I’ve said those same words many times before sleeping, and as recently as last week in Lobuche. Regards Andrew

In reply to philipjardine:

 This is a fairly common early symptom of HACE is it not?