Brain biopsy in the management of neurology patients.
Eur Neurol
; 64(1): 42-5, 2010.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-20606447
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND METHODS:
To evaluate the value of brain biopsy for neurology patients in our unit, we conducted a retrospective audit of neurology patients referred for brain biopsies for non-neoplastic disease from 1993 to 2007.RESULTS:
64 patients [median (range) age 51 (16-74) years] were included. The clinical presentation was diffuse encephalopathy for 40 patients, focal for 13 and multifocal for 11. The biopsy was diagnostic in 34 patients, abnormal but non-diagnostic in 21 and normal in 9. There was a statistically significant association between clinical presentation and biopsy result (p = 0.004); diagnostic biopsies were more common in patients with focal or multifocal clinical presentations. Twenty patients (31%) had alterations of management as a result of their brain biopsy, comprising specific treatment (11 patients) or prognosis/diagnosis of untreatable conditions (9 patients). Diagnoses of treatable conditions included Whipple's disease, tuberculoma, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, and neurosarcoidosis. Five patients (7.8%) had complications.CONCLUSIONS:
Brain biopsy is useful and relatively safe in the management of neurology patients, with a diagnostic yield of 53% in our series; some led to significant changes in management, including treatment of infections. Patients with focal or multifocal presentation are more likely to yield a diagnostic biopsy result.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Biopsy
/
Brain
/
Nervous System Diseases
/
Neurology
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
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Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
Eur Neurol
Year:
2010
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: