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New study shows, Few Computed Tomography ( CT ) scans will find a potential cause for someone experiencing a headache. Scientists at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto scrutinized 3,930 outpatient CT scans done in Ontario in 2005. About one in four of the computed tomography, or CT, scans was requested to evaluate patients with headaches.

Of the 623 patients receiving the scans solely because of headache, only 2.1 per cent found something that could potentially be causing the headache, the study revealed.

"Of concern was the finding that, for some patients in our study, the index CT scan for headache was not a single event but one of several CT scans of the brain they received, often ordered by someone other than the original ordering physician and with a median time to repeat scanning of only 106 days," the authors wrote.

"There are increasing concerns that radiation exposure during CT scanning may pose a public health risk."

Principal investigator Dr. John You said in a statement that there is concern about the potential overuse of CT scans for headache in ambulatory care, and the study shows that very few scans find a treatable cause for headache.

"Because of the very small potential risk of cancer from exposure to ionizing radiation, efforts should be made to avoid CT scanning for headache when the likelihood of identifying a cause for the headache is extremely low," he said. You noted that patients experiencing headaches four or five days per month, such as migraines, very rarely require CT scanning of the brain.

However, he said individuals experiencing daily headaches for months typically require CT scanning of the brain.
The study was published online by the American Journal of Medicine.

Source: American Journal of Medicine

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