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What Causes Severe Headache And Imbalance?
Question: my mother is suffering from severe headache occasionally with temporary imbalance. please go through attached MRI report and advise.
Brief Answer:
Read below
Detailed Answer:
I read that report carefully. It is good that your mother has had an MRI as it is the best exam to detect or exclude brain changes.
The MRI doesn't show any immediate threatening finding. It shows some lacunae, which are small areas of damage due to blockage of small blood vessels. Some small vessel changes happen in many patients with age, but apart from age and genetic factors, there are other predisposing factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, high cholesterol. So while the report speaks only of a few changes, as I said common in the elderly and not alarming, these factors I mention should be investigated for and addressed in order to prevent (or at least slow down) their progression in the future. When only a few they might not cause any significant loss of function, but when advanced they might lead to functional impairment.
As for the headaches, those small foci do not justify the headaches, they are not the cause. One possible cause would be high blood pressure which could explain the symptoms and also be a contributing factor to those changes, so if not already done, blood pressure should be monitored regularly during the coming weeks and those headache episodes.
I remain at your disposal for other questions.
Read below
Detailed Answer:
I read that report carefully. It is good that your mother has had an MRI as it is the best exam to detect or exclude brain changes.
The MRI doesn't show any immediate threatening finding. It shows some lacunae, which are small areas of damage due to blockage of small blood vessels. Some small vessel changes happen in many patients with age, but apart from age and genetic factors, there are other predisposing factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, high cholesterol. So while the report speaks only of a few changes, as I said common in the elderly and not alarming, these factors I mention should be investigated for and addressed in order to prevent (or at least slow down) their progression in the future. When only a few they might not cause any significant loss of function, but when advanced they might lead to functional impairment.
As for the headaches, those small foci do not justify the headaches, they are not the cause. One possible cause would be high blood pressure which could explain the symptoms and also be a contributing factor to those changes, so if not already done, blood pressure should be monitored regularly during the coming weeks and those headache episodes.
I remain at your disposal for other questions.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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