My dad passed away 4 years ago at the age of 66 with a giant fusiform aneurysm that ultimately ended up rupturing in the hospital. I also had an uncle (dad’s brother) who passed away at the age of 32 of a ruptured aneurysm. I recently had a CTA because I have been having constant headache, squiggly vision from time to time and dizzy spells but it showed normal. I still continue to have these symptoms, but the doctor keeps telling me it’s probably just migraine or stress. I am just worried they are missing something.
Welcome and thanks for posting! I can understand your concern with your family history. I think to answer your question correctly on if a CTA can miss something, I really don’t know. But the reading of the images is done by the Radiologist and they are human after all. I have had dozens of CTAs, most while I was in NSICU. Since my release, only the local hospital did the CTAs, my Neurosurgeon and my Neurologists have always ordered MRIs and MRAs. I had one MRI/A that there must have been a Resident who read them and they may have mixed up mine with someone else’s. It scared us a bit when I received the results before I saw my Neurosurgeon. Let’s just say she wasn’t happy and after jumping up out of her chair, grabbed a phone out at the desk and made a call without shutting the door. It was corrected before she came back in and sat down😂. I had another MRI/MRA that was done at the hospital next to my Neurologist’s office and it took the Radiologist a month or more for the final decision. Neither myself, nor my Neurologist at the time could figure it out. I became more than frustrated and had WFBH send all my images to the Neurologist’s and within three days the Radiologist finally did his reading. Since that experience all my brain scans are done at WFBH and I ask my Neurosurgeon to go over them, it’s worked out much better.
I have a few suggestions, ask a Neurosurgeon to look over the images for a second opinion. Ask your doctor to order an MRI and MRA, they are a bit different scanning from CTs and maybe if you don’t have one yet, get a Neurologist for your headaches.
Remember whether or not you have an aneurysm, you would need to learn to control stress. I remember after I ruptured and prior to being released from NSICU, I had many lectures on the need to control my stress. I I didn’t know it at the time, but I was soon to lose my very high stress job. The first thing I did was to distance myself from family, friends and acquaintances who were into a lot of drama and chaos. Those things were very helpful and I didn’t even realize how much stress I was allowing in my life. I’ve seen ads for an app called Breethe that says it helps a lot for anxiety, but I’ve yet to try it. I imagine the app is available for any type of phone or tablet. I had already been doing relaxation breathing for decades and I’d been going to a licensed massage therapist for a long time. My Neurosurgeon said to absolutely continue with the massages. I have one hour every three weeks.
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Thank you so much for your response…I will contact my doctor to see if I could possibly get an MRI/MRA just for more reassurance since my symptoms keep persisting.
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My CTA with contrast is what made the definite diagnosis of my aneurysm, odered by a neuro surgeon, after having an MRI from my primary care dr. in which it was misdiagnosed by the radiologist as a meningioma, initially.
I would trust the CTA, however it would be good to have it reviewed by a neurologist. To me, your symptoms sound like migraine. But it would be good to be followed due to your family history. I’ve had both my young adult kids scanned via MRA. I believe they need to do it again in 10 years. Try not to worry, but be your own advocate and do what you need to in order to feel comfortable. Best of luck.
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I have had both CTA and MRA. Be sure that you are working with a neurosurgeon. And maybe even a radiological neurosurgeon. Good luck!