I'm an academic, but have no medical background at all, but come from the more humanities area…
Anyway… I have a medical question:
Some time ago I saw an interview with Rudi Assauer shortly before his death asking him to sign a clock. It was a medical test in which R. A. Failed due to his Alzheimer's disease.
Today, I saw the movie "Brain on Fire" on Netflix for anti-NDMA receptor encephalitis. When the professor asked the patient to draw the young patient at the beginning of a clock, I immediately recalled the Assauer interview and thought that the protagonist had some form of dementia.
Later in the film, I was very surprised to find that she had encephalitis, although I was sure that some kind of dementia was present in the patient.
My question: What is the clock test actually used for? Can this explain a medical student to a total layman in simple terms?
I also know the clock test from the test of dementielle changes, but may be present for a short time probably even in a calcification, etc.
The Shulman clock test is a standard test at the first suspicion of a dementielle change, so z. Alzheimer's as in Assauer.
That he is used in other diseases, I would be new.
The clock test is also done in stroke patients. It is checked to what extent the patient remembers the shape of a clock, its numbers and the pointer positions - also applies to dementia. In the memory performance is also important whether the relations are correct in terms of distances and, for example, pointer position. The easiest way to recognize a deficit or failure is when people are painting an item that people come into contact with on a daily basis.
It takes a relatively long time for children to know and know the clock. But if they manage to read the clock, it will last a lifetime.
Cognitive deficits are therefore immediately recognizable if this learning outcome from early childhood is no longer complete.
He is also used in stroke patients!
