Headache may be the Causative Symptom of Brain Tumors

Featured Image Caption: Brain Tumor Headache

According to the new study findings, headache sometimes can only be the symptoms of brain tumors. CT scans and other neuroimaging tests have been proved effective in diagnosing the deadly disease in people with headache.

According to the researchers, minimal usage of CT scans and other neuroimaging tests for patients having headaches results in the delayed diagnosis of brain tumors. According to Dr Ammar H Hawasli and colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, these guidelines are inconsistent with neurosurgeon’s experience with patients having brain tumor.  Major factor for reducing the usage of neuroimaging device for patients with incredible headaches is the usage of unnecessary and costly medical tests.Migraine is the type of headache that can be diagnosed without any special tests.

However, in the absence of other neurological symptoms and signs patients with brain tumours may present with isolated headaches. On conducting research with 95 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of brain tumour, it was found with them a combination of , cognitive, seizures and speech dysfunction, or other neurological abnormalities.

In 11 patients, headche’s main symptom was brain tumor. Out of 11, four has new-onset headaches that would have qualified them for neuroimaging under recently proposed guidelines. The rest seven patients suffered from migraine or other types of headache for which imaging have not been performed under the proposed guidelines. Moreover, the early diagnosis of brain tumors enables prompt treatment and a wider range of surgical options. The whole research was published in the journal Neurosurgery.