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Query: UMLS:C0018681 (headache)
 56,091 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Rosette-forming glioneuronal tumor (RGNT) of the fourth ventricle has been identified as a novel and distinctive type of primary central nervous system neoplasm. In this report, we present a case with RGNT arising from the right cerebellar hemisphere. A 30-year-old female patient complained of headache for a five-year duration. Preoperative MRI revealed a well-circumscribed, cystic-solid lesion with hypo-intensity on T1-weighted image, hyper-intensity on T2-weighted image, and significant dot-like enhancement after IV contrast. Gross total resection was achieved in this case via suboccipital retro-sigmoidal approach, and RGNT was confirmed in the final histopathological diagnosis. RGNT of the fourth ventricle is a rare, benign tumor with an excellent prognosis. Operation is recommended as the prior protocol of treatment, and the follow-up MRI is necessary to evaluate the long-term prognostic effects. Currently, only one case of progression or recurrence has been reported in the postoperative course.
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PMID:Rosette-forming glioneuronal tumor (RGNT) of the fourth ventricle: Case report and review of literature. 2013 47

Tumors of the brain and spinal cord (central nervous system, CNS) are rare when compared with other sites and other diseases that can affect the length of an individual's life. However, about 20,000 new cases of primary CNS tumors are diagnosed in the United States each year, not an insignificant number. The CNS is "locked" inside a rigid and nonexpandable calvarium (except in newborns and young children); therefore, any new growths (primary or secondary) can only grow at the expense of the structures already inside the skull or spinal column. The symptoms and signs or clinical manifestations of CNS tumors depend on the location and the growth rate of these tumors. Symptoms include general nonlocalizing and focal symptoms and signs. General signs, which reflect the increase in intracranial pressure, include drowsiness, confusion, headache, nausea, vomiting, sixth nerve palsy, papilledema, generalized seizures, and cognitive impairment. Focal signs and symptoms reflect the effect of the tumor on specific structures. Special imaging techniques (such as computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography) are essential for the localization of the lesion and for image-guided brain biopsies. The handling of these tiny biopsies often presents significant diagnostic challenges, especially at the time of frozen section examination.
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PMID:Clinical manifestation of central nervous system tumor. 2086 Mar 13

Contemporary therapies for patients with glioblastomas remain marginally efficient, and recurrence following surgery, radiation therapy and adjuvant chemotherapy is practically universal. The major obstacles to the successful use of chemotherapy for CNS tumors are the drug delivery to the tumor site and the infusion of chemotherapeutic agents directly into the arterial supply of a tumor. The latter could provide a pharmacokinetic advantage by enhancing drug delivery to the tumor. Sixteen patients with recurrent unilateral glioblastomas treated with intra-arterial BCNU were evaluated retrospectively. During the infusion, eleven patients referred pain in the ipsilateral eye, five patients were nauseated, three reported headache, one patient presented mental confusion, while two presented focal signs. There were two deaths during the course of therapy. Four patients achieved temporary clinical improvement, seven showed disease stability, and three presented clinical deterioration. The median total survival time was 87.9 weeks. Unilateral vision loss and focal signs were observed as delayed complications of this treatment. This study has confirmed previous reports indicating that arterial chemotherapy is clearly not curative, and presents serious toxicity. Only through a randomized prospective study performed in a large series of patients can the questions concerning survival period increment be answered properly.
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PMID:Treatment of recurrent glioblastoma with intra-arterial BCNU [1, 3-bis (2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea]. 2104 93

Astroblastoma is a rare primary glial tumor of children and young adults, typically located in the cerebral hemispheres and presenting as a well-circumscribed, nodular, often cystic enhancing mass. The existence of astroblastoma as a distinct clinicopathologic entity has long been debated but is recognized in the 2007 WHO classification of CNS tumors. The grading of these tumors remains unsettled. Currently, no grade has been established and there are no clearly defined diagnostic criteria for low- or high-grade tumors. Astroblastomas in general are thought to have a favorable outcome with low rates of recurrence following gross total resection. We report a case of astroblastoma with 'high-grade/anaplastic' histology in a 12-year-old, previously healthy girl. The patient experienced severe, sudden-onset headache, and quickly became comatose. Head CT showed a massive intraparenchymal hemorrhage in the right frontal lobe with surrounding edema. She underwent emergent posterior frontal craniotomy for decompression and hematoma evacuation. Pathologic examination revealed a sharply demarcated hemorrhagic heterogeneous glial tumor with focal papillary architecture, densely hyalinized blood vessels, and intensely GFAP-positive perivascular cells. The tumor showed unequivocal high-grade features including an elevated proliferative index. The diagnosis of anaplastic astroblastoma was rendered. The patient expired on postoperative day 30. This case illustrates the potential poor outcome of high-grade astroblastoma and highlights the morphologic heterogeneity of this rare neoplasm.
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PMID:Anaplastic astroblastoma presenting as massive, sudden-onset, intraparenchymal hemorrhage. 2154 Jun 23

Juvenile xanthogranulomas (JXG) are uncommon non-Langerhans cell histiocytic proliferations which arise most often in children. While most cases present as solitary cutaneous lesions, occasional cases involve extracutaneous sites. Rare examples of JXGs have been reported involving all levels of the neuroaxis. We present two cases of JXGs involving the nervous system, and review the literature. The first patient was a 14-year-old female with headaches and a mass involving the left trigeminal nerve; pathologic examination showed a JXG. At 11 months follow-up, after administration of systemic chemotherapy, the patient remained stable with residual tumor. The second patient was a 15-year-old female with leg weakness and numbness, who underwent complete surgical resection of a dural JXG. At eight months follow-up, she showed no evidence of tumor, and was able to walk without difficulty. Review of the literature revealed 38 previously published reports of JXGs involving the nervous system. The CNS was involved in the majority (75%) of cases. The clinical characteristics of JXGs arising in the CNS varied significantly from cases in the peripheral nervous system (PNS); CNS tumors occurred in younger patients, more often males, and were more likely to be associated with concurrent cutaneous and extra-nervous systemic lesions. The clinical outcomes were similar for CNS and PNS lesions, with the caveat that all three lethal JXGs occurred in the CNS. The clinical and radiologic presentation of JXGs is nonspecific, thus necessitating biopsy and pathologic examination to arrive at the diagnosis. The pathologic differential diagnosis includes a heterogeneous group of histiocytic proliferations; immunostaining for histiocytic markers CD68, factor XIIIa, and Fascin, and the absence of Birbeck granules and CD1a immunoexpression suggests the diagnosis of JXG. In many cases, total surgical resection is curative. However, some cases will require additional chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy.
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PMID:Juvenile xanthogranulomas of the nervous system: A report of two cases and review of the literature. 2264 Jan 64

We report a patient with primary leptomeningeal melanocytosis presenting as chronic meningitis. A previously healthy 27-year-old man presented with 2 months of severe headaches and photophobia. A lumbar puncture was notable for a highly elevated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) protein level without pleocytosis. Imaging at the time of admission suggested only meningitis without the presence of parenchymal lesions. On the basis of the CSF findings, early meningeal biopsy was performed, leading to the diagnosis of a meningeal melanocytic neoplasm. Early meningeal biopsy should be considered in patients with meningitis when the CSF profile suggests the possibility of a central nervous system neoplasm.
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PMID:Primary leptomeningeal melanocytosis presenting as chronic meningitis. 2435 6

Ganglioglioma is a rare central nervous system neoplasm representing 0.4% to 1.7% of all brain tumors and most frequently occurs in the pediatric population with an incidence of 7.6%. These tumors are usually slow-growing and well-circumscribed solid or cystic lesions. Gangliogliomatosis infrequently occurs in the frontal lobe, pineal gland, basal ganglia, hypothalamus, and optic chiasm, with very few reports of brainstem ganglioglioma. We report a case of a 35-year-old female who initially presented with headache, vertigo, ataxia, saccadic dysfunction, dysarthria, and dysmetria for several years due to an unknown etiology. Her brain imaging showed multiple lesions in the pons and the cerebellum with cystic changes and size reduction and enlargement over the next few years while her neurological symptoms continued to worsen. The patient received courses of steroid treatment that improved her neurological symptoms, suggesting an inflammatory component of her disease. Extensive workup for an inflammatory or infectious etiology was unfruitful and two brain biopsies were inconclusive. A third biopsy showed atypical glial nuclei, binucleated cells, and Rosenthal fibers and the presence of BRAF V600E mutation was detected. The diagnosis of gangliogliomatosis was consequently established. This case illustrates that gangliogliomatosis may present with the waxing-and-waning neurological signs and symptoms. It can masquerade inflammatory processes in the central nervous system on brain imaging and deserves careful consideration in the diagnosis of patients with an indolent course of neurological deterioration.
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PMID:An enigmatic brainstem posterior fossa ganglioglioma in an adult. 2440 63

Germ cell tumors, which constitute approximately 3-5% of tumors of the central nervous system (CNS), can be subdivided into germinomas, embryonal carcinomas, yolk sac tumors, choriocarcinomas, teratomas and mixed germ cell tumors. The diagnosis of intracranial germ cell tumor is based on the clinical symptoms, detection of tumor markers, such as alpha fetoprotein (AFP) and the beta subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin (beta-hCG) in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain and spinal cord, CSF cytology and histology. The diagnosis of a secreting germ cell tumor, i.e. a non-germinoma, can be made by the determination of AFP and hCG as tumor markers. Germinomas are radiosensitive but are equally as sensitive to chemotherapy. Teratomas of the CNS are mostly diagnosed in newborns and infants. The most decisive role in the treatment of teratomas is played by as complete a resection as possible. Chemotherapy and irradiation play a subordinate role.Embryonal tumors, which constitute approximately 15-20% of CNS tumors, include medulloblastomas, primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNET) of the CNS and the atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor of the CNS. Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor in childhood and adolescence. The incidence peak is the fifth year of life with a male predisposition in a ratio of 1.5:1. Medulloblastomas constitute 12-25% of all pediatric CNS tumors and 30-40% of pediatric tumors of the posterior cranial fossa. At the time of diagnosis evidence of dissemination in the CSF cavity is found in approximately 40% of patients. The extreme cell density makes medulloblastomas hyperdense in computed tomography (CT) and can therefore be differentiated from hypodense astrocytomas. The PNETs are histologically related to medulloblastomas, pineoblastomas, atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors and peripheral neuroblastomas. They are relatively rare in children constituting less than 5% of supratentorial neoplasms. Patients are mostly clinically conspicuous due to macrocephalus and signs of brain pressure and/or seizures. In native CT the solid components of PNETs show a hyperdensity compared to the surrounding brain parenchyma probably due to the high cell density. Cysts and calcification are often detectable. The survival rate of children with CNS tumors has continuously increased in recent years. When corresponding clinical symptoms appear, such as headache, nausea or vomiting when fasting, all of which are evidence of increased intracranial pressure, MRI should be carried out as quickly as possible. Children should be treated in centers with departments of pediatric oncology and hematology and within the framework of studies.
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PMID:[Germ cell and embryonal tumors]. 2511 69

High grade gliomas account for almost one-third of primary central nervous system neoplasm, mainly in adults with a mean age of 41 years. They usually present with symptoms of raised intracranial pressure such as headache, vomiting, and seizures. We report a case of 55-year-old male presenting with right side complete third nerve palsy. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed an intraaxial tumor of the right medial temporal lobe. The tumor was removed grossly, and the histological diagnosis was anaplastic astrocytoma (WHO grade 3). We discuss clinical presentation of this case along with pertinent literature.
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PMID:Isolated third nerve palsy: A rare presentation of high grade glioma. 2705 28

We report the case of previously healthy 14 years old male who presented high grade fever and headache. There was a history of convulsion at age of 7 years, so MRI Brain was done. It was suggestive of a central nervous system neoplasm. Our patient had only two days of fever which is an unusual presentation of a neoplasm. The paper should be of interest to the clinicians as neoplastic fever as cause of acute febrile illness is considered as a remote possibility.
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PMID:Neoplastic Fever: All who Shiver are not Infected. 2846 55


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