RADIOLOGICAL STUDY OF CT AND MRI CORRELATION IN CHRONIC HEADACHE AND ITS OUTCOME

Abstract

Background: Making clinical and economic decisions it is important to distinguish between
the primary and the secondary cause of headache, which is often associated with brain
pathology. Present study was aimed to study CT findings and MRI findings correlation in
chronic headache and its outcome. Material and Methods: Present study was single-center,
cross-sectional, observational study, conducted patients of age 10-70 years who are
presented with chronic headache as chief complaint to the OPD, underwent imaging by CT
& MRI. Results: The percentage of females (53%) was slightly higher than males (47%).
M:F ratio was found to be 1:1.13. Average age of the population was 50.5± 13.8 years.
Majority of the patient population were from urban areas (85%). 7% Patients were found to
be overweight whereas 2% were underweight. Average BMI of the population was 22± 2.9
kg/m2. A vast majority (66%) of the patients had complaints between 6-9 months. Average
duration of complaints was 8.72± 2.7 months. Majority of the patients (43%) had frontal
headache. One sided headache was reported by 38% patients. 5% cases had headache at the
back of the neck whereas 2% had it around the eyes. The most common detected pathology
was paranasal sinusitis (n= 08), followed by brain tumours (5 %). 2 Pineal lesions were
identified in MRI which were missed out by CT scans. 3 Vascular malformations were
identified on MRI compared to 2 on CT. Calcified granuloma was defined better compared
to CT. The detection rate of CT was found to be 20 % whereas detection rate of MRI was
found to be 23%. Conclusion: This study has provided detection rate of 20-23% using CT
and MRI and thus given reasonable evidence for radiodiagnosis of chronic headache cases
with normal neurological examination and significant intracranial pathology