
What Causes Lightheadedness And Headaches While Having An Aneurysm In The Brain?

Cause of your symptoms
Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXXXXX thanks for asking from HCM.
I can understand your concern. It is very good and inspiring that you are such active and fit at 61 years age.
As you are doing regular strenuous work, you must get your routine blood work up, x ray of major joints, scanning of brain done. It is because, with age, every blood vessel in body becomes hard. With strenuous work, vessel can become more hard due to rise in BP at that time.
With passage of time, the vessel diameter can become narrow and thus chances of ischemia or stroke to brain.
In your case, it might be one reason. I suggest you that you should undergo few investigations after consulting neurologist, like
- Blood cholesterol level
- Color doppler of neck vessels supplying to brain
- MRI brain with angiography to know about stroke and neck vessels
Your symptoms of light headedness, dizziness can be warning signs of brain ischemia. All the above mentioned investigations will rule out any ischemic illness. Only thing which I am not able to understand is - how do you get relief after doing work out.
May be after above investigations, we will be able to understand it more. Aneurysm does not present like that and you are not over-reacting. You are thinking right.
Hope it will help you. Please let me know about the reports.
Thanks.
Take care


Answers of all your doubts
Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXXXXX welcome back.
It is very good that your blood workup and blood pressure are normal. Only doubt left is - Ischemia or narrowing of blood vessels.
These can be cleared with MRI brain and ultrasound doppler of neck vessels.
Now coming to your questions (one by one)
- Aneurysm presentation and difference between aneurysm and ischemia- Aneurysm is abnormal dilatation of artery. On imaging it looks like some pimple arising from artery. It is different from ischemia which means blockade of blood supply to brain. If that part of brain dies due to absent blood supply, it is called "ischemic stroke or infarct".
Aneurysm presents as life threatening condition if there is rupture of it. There will sudden rise in brain pressure. It presents as severe headache (worst headache), vomiting, loss of consciousness, sometimes coma, seizures and functional loss.
If unruptured aneurysm, it is usually asymptomatic or may present with compression of adjacent structure. It will manifest as headache, vision loss, squint in eyes and some functional deficit. It does not cause light headedness which you are having.
: Brain angiography - It is done by three methods - CT angiography, MR angiography and digital subtraction angiography (DSA). Every angiography requires injection of XXXXXXX This XXXXXXX demarcates the vessels in brain and shows any occlusion or aneurysm. Usually CT or MR angiography are done nowadays.
This procedure is usually not risky if you are not allergic to XXXXXXX and your kidney is functioning normally. The XXXXXXX can damage kidney if kidney functions are borderline or poor.
The allergy is first checked by doctor and nurse before giving injection. Before XXXXXXX study, kidney function test will be done by blood checkup. SO there is no need to worry about it.
You can undergo XXXXXXX study after consulting doctor.
Hope it will help you. If still in doubt, do let me know.
Thanks. Take care

Answered by

Get personalised answers from verified doctor in minutes across 80+ specialties
