A Brain Disorder Easily Missed

By JANE E. BRODY

Edward Ferguson, a civil engineer living in Vancouver, Wash., retired at age 65 from a job handling multimillion-dollar contracts. Five years later he could not balance a checkbook, walk without falling, drive a car, control his bladder or recognize his granddaughter

Instead of the active retirement he had anticipated, Mr. Ferguson, now 74, thought he would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, incontinent and struggling with dementia. Ten doctors were unable to tell him what was wrong, but an Internet search by his daughter found a condition that seemed to match his symptoms: normal pressure hydrocephalus, or N.P.H.

The disorder involves a build-up of spinal fluid in the ventricles of the brain, causing pressure on nerves that control the legs, balance, bladder and cognitive function. “It’s as if the brain has reverted to babyhood,” Dr. Michael Kaplitt, a neurosurgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said in an interview. “Like babies, people with N.P.H......READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

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