Abstract
A 77-year-old right-handed woman without any liver diseases was admitted to our hospital because of transient right hemiparesis. She developed total aphasia with right hemiplegia on the third hospital day. We suspected that she had a cerebral infarction following a transient ischemic attack. However, brain diffusion-weighted images revealed no abnormal-intensity lesions, and cerebral angiography showed patent arteries. Additionally, her serum ammonia level was elevated. Theta waves without triphasic waves were detected by electroencephalogram. T1-weighted magnetic resonance brain images revealed high-intensity signals in the bilateral globus pallidus. Enhanced abdominal computed tomography showed a portal-systemic shunt from the splenic and inferior mesenteric veins into the left renal vein via the left ovarian vein. The administration of branched-chain amino acids and lactulose improved her clinical symptoms. We confirmed the diagnosis of non-cirrhotic portal-systemic encephalopathy (NCPSE), therefore balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration of the shunt vessel was performed. The recognition of NCPSE on the examination of a suspected stroke patient is important, as patients with NCPSE can present as stroke mimics. (Received June 26, 2017; Accepted August 22, 2017; Published February 1, 2018).
