Symptoms
Prognosis for PBP patients is poor. Progressive bulbar palsy symptoms can include progressive difficulty with chewing, talking, and swallowing (Merck 2005). Patients can also exhibit reduced gag reflexes, weak palatal movements, fasciculations, and weak movement of the facial muscles and tongue. In advanced cases of PBP, the patient may be unable to protrude their tongue or manipulate food in their mouth (Campbell 2005).
Patients with early cases of PBP have difficulty with pronunciations, particularly lateral consonants (linguals) and velars, and may show problems with drooling saliva. If the corticobulbar tract is affected a pseudobulbar affect with emotional changes may occur (Merck 2005). Because PBP patients have such difficulty swallowing, food and saliva can be inhaled into the lungs. This can cause gagging and choking, and it increases the risk of pneumonia (Merck 2005). Death, which is often from pneumonia, usually occurs 1 to 3 years after the start of the disorder.
Read more about this topic: Progressive Bulbar Palsy
Famous quotes containing the word symptoms:
“For anyone addicted to reading commonplace books ... finding a good new one is much like enduring a familiar recurrence of malaria, with fever, fits of shaking, strange dreams. Unlike a truly paludismic ordeal, however, the symptoms felt while savoring a collection of one mans pet quotations are voluptuously enjoyable ...”
—M.F.K. Fisher (19081992)
“In retirement, only money and symptoms are consequential.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Protest, evasion, merry distrust, and a delight in mockery are symptoms of health: everything unconditional belongs in pathology.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900)