Good evening!MountainMisst wrote:fecc-mechanic wrote:Medically speaking, the theory holds very little water. I'll always be the first to say "anything is possible".
However, the etiology of the disorder isn't described accurately in the article. Dr. Tennant cherry-picks symptoms that fit, and conveniently leaves out others that do not. Certainly not the expected behavior of a diagnostician/clinician of Dr. Tennant's usual impeccable stature.
It also takes a lot more than a mild/moderate blow to the head (which to cause the action described would have to almost certainly involve a massive open skull fracture). Such a fracture never occurred. A concussion, did. The mechanism of injury in Elvis' case, again, does not adequately account for what Dr. Tennant claims occurred.
With that said, there is an inherent genetic involvement,for certain, on Elvis' maternal side of the family... But not in a new and earth-shattering manner.
Edited to say: I've added some further thoughts, above and below. The above post was written after being awake for wayyyy too long. So some fixes had to be made.
Anywho... Reading "between the lines" of the various articles that have been published ---------- it almost seems like Dr. Tennant is trying to give Elvis the primary diagnosis of a Centralized Pain Syndrome (CPS), without necessarily coming right out and saying so. In some, the CPS diagnosis is secondary to the auto-immune disorder, in others it is primary. It is hinted in some of the articles more strongly than others... While the only treatment algorithm for such a disorder (then, and still now) is massive amounts of opiate pain meds - and even then, such meds are hardly effective in treating the pain ---- Elvis most certainly did not suffer from such a disorder. What differs from a normal chronic pain diagnosis - is that there is no "fixing" it by traditional means, only managing the symptoms over the course of a lifetime. Very little is known about CPS, still, but enough is known to know that it is a highly unlikely fit in EP's case. Phantom Limb Pain (Though, not necessarily falling under the CPS umbrella) experienced by amputees is a good descriptor of the type of neurological mayhem that CPS patients go through. While PLP is transient, CPS is almost always life-long.
Generally speaking, CPS is triggered by a handful of events. Parkinsons, MS, Malignant/Non-Malignant brain tumors, and massive brain and/or spinal cord injuries. It again must be re-iterated that the type of brain injury spoken of is the type of brain injury one experiences from a significant traumatic even (Automobile crash with open/closed head injury, blunt force from a fall of a minimum of 15feet, getting beaten about the head with a baseball bat, etc). As in Elvis' case, a concussion (or even 100) with absolutely no significant associated structural trauma or cerebral edema WILL NOT account for, or lead to a CPS diagnosis.
Dr. Tennant hints at EP suffering from Centralized Pain Disorder in the below article:
http://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/pain/other/brain-injury/elvis-presley-head-trauma-autoimmunity-pain-early-deathOf note, regarding hypogammaglobulinemia which Dr. Tennant states as significant in almost all of the articles ----- notice the addition at the bottom of this image from the above article:Dr. Tennant in PPM Journal wrote:"...stemmed from multiple head injuries that led to an autoimmune inflammatory disorder with subsequent central pain. His terminal event was cardiac arrhythmia, underpinned by drug abuse".
The significance is that the post-mortem sample (With 1970's tech) can certainly raise the question of hypogammaglobulinemia - If the sample showed a significantly decreased level of immunoglobulin-A, Immunoglobulin-M, and Immunoglobulin-G. However, Elvis' levels were within normal range. Dr. Tennant tries to say that since they were within the "lower limits of normal" that these findings are significant. They are not. And they are not "Consistent with a chronic disease state".
That would be like saying someone with a sodium level within the lower limits of normal is suffering from hyponatremia... Doesn't work that way.
Hi Jordan
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