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Neurology (Expert Forum)
cavernous angioma
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cavernous angioma
by jusshell, May 01, 2005 12:00AM
I am a 28 year old female. I was diagnosed with a cavernous angioma about 2 weeks ago. I was experiencing a headache that wouldn't go away, dizziness, ringing in my ears and memory problems. The cat scan showed bleeding in the brain and the MRI showed a 1 cm ca right at the ventricle in the back (on the right side) of my head. The neurologist said he has seen reports of varies spots, but has never seen anything about where mine is. They did a spinal tap which he said came back, "Pretty good"(?) and an eye exam (which was normal). He said he is going to send me for a hearing test to see if the ringing has caused any hearing loss. But he seems to be trying to find other causes of the headache and ringing other than this ca. I am curious if these could all be symptoms of the ca and if you have any info on where mine is located? I know you can't see the MRI or anything over the internet, but is this something that should be operated on or just kept an eye on? Over the past couple days my left hand has been shaking quite a bit. Also, I had like no reflexes. Is this of concern? I feel I am being left in the dark about what is going on and I am just trying to not go out of my mind until I can talk to the dr again. I appreciate any insight on this and thank you in advance. I don't know if this is enough info or not.
Doctor's Answer
by CCF-Neuro-M.D.-PW, May 05, 2005 12:00AM
I'm not sure if you meant that the CT scan showed active bleeding (as if the angioma had ruptured) or just 'blood' within the angioma - I presume it just showed blood within the angioma which is typical (without seeing the MRI it is difficult for me to comment acurately.
It may very well be an 'incidentaloma' - an incidental finding during a workup for a more benign condition such as a typical/noncomplicated headache. The question is then what do you do with it, and is it causally related to the headache - I suspect not if it is only 1cm in size. The location of the angioma from the info you provide is not that uncommon - they can occur anywhere. the spinal tap was probably done to look for evidence of bleeding/red blood cells.
An MRI can provide evidence that there was bleeding in the past by detecting blood degradtion products in the tissue around the angioma - usually only if a GRADIENT ECHO scan was included in the MRI.
The shaking of teh left hand could be a seizure, but would not typically result from a lesion in that spot (by teh ventricle) - a neurologist should be ablt to figure this out with an EEG.
Lack of reflexes ?all over, is relatively nonspecific and does not suggest anything else for now.
Discuss your concerns with your neurologist, but in all likliehood it should be left alone
Good luck
It may very well be an 'incidentaloma' - an incidental finding during a workup for a more benign condition such as a typical/noncomplicated headache. The question is then what do you do with it, and is it causally related to the headache - I suspect not if it is only 1cm in size. The location of the angioma from the info you provide is not that uncommon - they can occur anywhere. the spinal tap was probably done to look for evidence of bleeding/red blood cells.
An MRI can provide evidence that there was bleeding in the past by detecting blood degradtion products in the tissue around the angioma - usually only if a GRADIENT ECHO scan was included in the MRI.
The shaking of teh left hand could be a seizure, but would not typically result from a lesion in that spot (by teh ventricle) - a neurologist should be ablt to figure this out with an EEG.
Lack of reflexes ?all over, is relatively nonspecific and does not suggest anything else for now.
Discuss your concerns with your neurologist, but in all likliehood it should be left alone
Good luck
Member Comments (2)
by jusshell, May 01, 2005 12:00AM
I do think I left out something important. They did the spinal tap because the neurologist thought the ca was bleeding into my spinal fluid. The pressure was normal, but that's when he called and said the rest of the results looked, "Pretty good." I know I should have asked him what that meant, but I think I was still too shocked about the whole thing. They did so bloodwork too, which nothing has been said about it (I just thought about it) so I am assuming that was all good.
