Sometimes drinking an energy drink can feel like recharging your battery. But too much can turn that shock into a catastrophic wave that destroys wiring and blows a fuse. That was the unfortunate and alarming case for a man in Britain several years ago, according to a case report this week in BMJ Case Reports.
The man, who was in his 50s and otherwise healthy, showed up at a hospital after the entire left side of his body abruptly went numb and he was left with clumsy, uncoordinated muscle movements (ataxia). His blood pressure was astonishingly high, at 254/150 mm Hg. For context, a normal reading is below 120/80, while anything above 180/120 is considered a hypertensive crisis, which is a medical emergency.
The man had suffered a mild stroke and his extremely high blood pressure was an obvious factor. But why his blood pressure had reached stratospheric heights was much less clear to his doctors, according to the retrospective case report written by Martha Coyle and Sunil Munshi of Nottingham University Hospital.
When the man was examined, the doctors described him as fit and healthy. He didn't smoke, drink or use drugs. His blood work was completely normal. His cholesterol, blood sugar levels, markers for kidney and liver function – everything from routine tests came back normal. Specialized tests for things like autoimmune diseases and clotting disorders also came back negative. Heart tests showed no problems. Urinalysis and abdominal scans showed that there were no problems with his other organs.
Power surge
Yet a computed tomography (CT) scan of his head found evidence of spasms in the arteries in his brain, which are strongly linked to high blood pressure. And magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) found an infarct (dead tissue) in his thalamus, a central, deep part of the brain that, among many crucial functions, transmits sensory and motor signals. Overall, it appeared that his spasming arteries had cut off blood flow to this part of his brain, causing his stroke, subsequent numbness and ataxia.
