Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in referred adult patients with headache

Background and objective: Since the beginning of the medical practice, headache was considered both a therapeutic and a diagnostic challenge. According to the ranking that was made by the global burden of diseases collaborative network for causes of disabilities, headache was considered the fourth for both males and females. The aim of the study was to evaluate the findings of MRI among headache patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from 1st of Nov. 2021 till the 1stof June 2022. A convenient sample was collected from referred patients to outpatient clinic in Rizgary Teaching Hospital. The cases were diagnosed by a specialist in internal medicine and then referred for further MRI evaluation. The data analyzed using IBM SPSS (statistical package of social science) version 25. The data was summarized by descriptive statistics. The measures of central tendency and dispersion were calculated. The mean of age differences was calculated by t-test. The associations between categorical variables were found by Chi-square test. The P value was considered significant if it was ≤ 0.05. Results: Out of 150 patients, 70% were females and only 30% were males with male to female ratio of. 0.43:1.73.3% of females in primary group had normal MRI findings and 84.4% of males had abnormal findings in the secondary group. The difference was statistically significant (P-value <0.001). The mean age ± SD for males was 45.2 ± 9.3 and the mean age for females was 37± 9.8. The difference between means was significant (P = 0.018). In MRI findings 56% (84 out of 150) of patients were normal, followed by sinusitis (28%), (3.3%) cerebral tumor,0.6% had pituitary mass and 0.6% diagnosed as meningitis. Conclusion: The low rate of positive findings in our study supports the need for an evidence-based guideline for neuroimaging in this health care setting. Future studies are recommended to investigate other physicians’ reasons for using neuroimaging techniques as a routine investigation for headache patients.