Evaluation of CT and MRI Findings among Patients Presented with Chief Complaint of Headache in Central India.

INTRODUCTION

Headache is one of the most common presenting complaints in day to day medical practice however the secondary causes of headache are uncommon. Thus, appropriate selection of headache patient (Pt) is important to determine those that require neuroimaging due to likely secondary cause. Red flags and Clinical warning criterion (CWC) act as a screening tool to help in identifying those who may get benefit from neuroimaging.

AIM

To evaluate the findings of computed tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) among patients presented with the chief complaint of headache and to compare the findings between two groups of patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This retrospective observational study was carried out in 500 selected patients, who underwent CT or MRI scan of head in Peoples College of Medical Sciences and Research centre, Bhopal, MP during the period of 2 year in between Jan 2013 to Dec 2014. Siemens Somatom sensation 40 slice MDCT and Siemens magnetom 1.5T MRI scanner were used for imaging. Five hundred patients of 10 to 70 year age were selected for the study based on our criterions of selection.

RESULTS

All 500 patients were divided in to two groups A and B based on presence or absence of red flag signs and CWC signs. Group A consists of 48 patients having one or more red flag or CWC signs and group B consists of 452 patients those don't have any above signs. 29 cases (60.4%) out of total 48 cases of group A is suffering from chronic headache as compared to 97 cases (21.5%) out of total 452 patients of group B is having positive findings (p-value<0.05). Out of 500 patients, only 29 cases (5.8%) revealed some form of brain parenchymal pathology whereas other associated findings were seen in 97 cases e.g. sinusitis in 58 (11.6%), bone related pathology in 26 (5.2%) and chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) in 13 (2.6%) patients.

CONCLUSION

CT/MRI in patients without red flag or CWC sign yields very low percentage of clinically significant positive findings in neuroimaging. In the absence of these, the only reason for CT or MRI scan seems to reassure the patients and their loved ones. CT or MRI as a screening tool in these patients has limited value in term of cost effectiveness.