Prolonged reversible amnesia: a case report.

A 55-year-old woman sustained an acute amnesia that lasted for 8 days. The results of a cerebral magnetic resonance imaging scan and an electroencephalogram were normal. A Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) test performed 6 days after the event showed global impairment in every domain, except for attention/concentration. A single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scan taken 8 days after the event showed hypoperfusion in the left temporal and frontal areas. The results of a follow-up SPECT scan on the 40th day after the episode were normal. A second WMS-R test showed some improvement on the 40th day after the event and considerable improvement on the 176th day. The clinical feature of the patient meets the criteria of transient global amnesia (TGA), except for her protracted course. It was not amnesic stroke, however, because of its reversibility and because there were no accompanying neurological signs. This case raises some implications of the pathogenesis of TGA and the clinical applicability of research criteria.