Primary brain tumor

Alternative names:

astrocytoma; brain tumor - primary; ependymoma; glioblastoma multiforme; glioma; medulloblastoma; meningioma; neuroglioma; oligodendroglioma

Symptoms:

• headache
  • recent onset of new type
  • persistent
  • worse on awakening

• vomiting
  • possibly accompanied by nausea
  • more severe in the morning

• personality changes and behavior changes
• emotional instability, rapid emotional changes
• intellectual decline
  • loss of memory
  • impaired calculating abilities
  • impaired judgment

• seizures, new onset
• reduced level of consciousness (decreased alertness)
• neurologic changes
  • vision changes (double vision, decreased vision)
  • hearing loss
  • decreased sensation of a body area
  • weakness of a body area
  • speech difficulties
  • decreased coordination, clumsiness, falls

• fever (sometimes)
• weakness, lethargy
• general ill feeling (malaise)
• positive Babinski's reflex
• decerebrate posture
• decorticate posture

IN INFANTS

• bulging fontanelles
• sutures - separated
• opisthotonos
• increased head circumference
• no red reflex in the eye

Note: Specific symptoms vary.

Additional symptoms that may be associated with this disease:

• tongue problems
• swallowing difficulty
• smell, impaired
• obesity
• movement, uncontrollable
• movement, dysfunctional
• menstruation, absent
• hiccups
• hand tremor
• facial paralysis
• eyes, pupils different size
• eye movements, uncontrollable
• eyelid drooping
• confusion
• breathing, absent temporarily
• behavior, unusual or strange

Signs and tests:

Examination often shows focal (isolated location) or general neurologic changes that are specific to the location of the tumor. Some tumors may not show symptoms until they are very large and cause rapid neurologic decline, others are characterized by slowly progressive symptoms. Most brain tumors will include signs typical of space-occupying masses (aggregations of cells) which cause increased intracranial pressure and compression of brain tissue.

The diagnosis may be confirmed, and the tumor localized, by:

• CT scan of the head
• MRI of the head

This disease may also alter the results of a CPK isoenzymes test.