Frontal lobe cyst causing preassure?? Is mass effect bad ?

[morpheous]

Hi all,
I am 27/male/Australia and 7 years ago I had an Ct after periods of confusion..

Ct revealed a mass on my left frontal lobe so I went to visit an Neurologist who then sent me for an MRI.
The Neurologist told me if the findings were an arachnoid cyst then its just incidental findings and we will forget about it.
I read the report and It said: Arachnoid cyst, some scalloping of inner table due to its long standing nature and also said there was a mass effect.
I was scheduled to fly out to london for work, so I just forgot about it and did not go back to see the neurologist.
For the last 7 years it has always been in the back of my mind (ha ha) that no neurologist has ever seen and discussed with me the results of the MRI.
After reading up on the internet it seems that a lesion causing mass effect on the brain is a bad thing ?
I feel slightly reassured that in the 7 years my symptoms, tinitis, confusion, eyesight which might or might not have anything to do with it, havent got any worse.

But am is siiting on a time bomb, is the mass effect going to cause problems..

I do not have the report or MRI from 7 years ago however I have a recent MRI that I went and got myself to see if it has grown and it does look like it has slightly.

Here is link to a slice from my MRI http://www.darrenjames.net/head.jpg

I have heard that most Neurologist pass arachnoid cysts as incidental findings which is fine, however surely some may cause major problems.

So I would be greatly appreciated if someone could give feedback or comments.

Thankyou very much

Darren

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Continued.

Forum doesn't seem to let me add further posts in here bu only edit my original post.

Thank you very much for your reply.

Here is a link to batch of slices from my MRI - http://www.darrenjames.net/Mri.Darren.Jpegs.rar

The periods of confusion often lasted weeks and felt like I was dazed normally it started off with what I thought was a panic attack..

I have had an EEG few years ago, I didnt see the report I was just told that I was sensitive to one frequency and its nothing to worry about..

When they were doing EEG once cycle of lights flashing with my eyes closed felt like it was burning a hole in my head and I kept asking her to stop but she kept pushing.. after the EEG I could not move for over an hour.
But they said it was nothing to worry about.

I think I have also experienced some dramatic personality changes aswell, These symptoms if they are related to the cyst atleast I can handle them. as long as they dont dramatically get worse.

My main fear is of something suddenly happening like the cyst herniating or the mass effect slowly damaging more and more of my brain over time which cannot be cured.

I am not on any medication.

Few years back ITried Valium, just made me feel anxious
& I Tried Bet Blockers after the EEG as they said my heart rate was high.. no real effect just gave me messed up dreams.

I guess my main question is, with or without symptoms, if this was your MRI would it be something that you would be concerned about??

[drgeroulis]

Hi Darren, thanks for the question. My initial thought is that episodic confusion in someone with an arachnoid cyst would raise the question of possible epileptic seizures, either as a direct result of the cyst or surrounding mass effect. Was an EEG performed at the time of your complaint of confusion? Are there more slices to your MRI online? You mentioned that it may look bigger, is that according to the official MRI report? I would caution you against making that conclusion yourself as MRIs can vary from study to study especially with variabilities in technique. The best interpretation would be if your repeat MRI was at the same institution, read by same radiologist. Are you on medications of any sort?

[drgeroulis]

In order to reply you need to subscribe (which is free to do) http://www.asktheneurologist.com/donationpledge.html
For some reason I'm having trouble with the link of your scans. Is there a way to look at the link you sent without having to download it to my computer?

Anyways, most arachnoid cysts seem to remain the same size or if they enlarge it can be only slightly, while others fluctuate over time. If you're having personality changes, this is concerning, and I would recommend you see your Neurologist. It may be time to repeat imaging if neurologic symptoms develop, and changes in personality would count as one. The frontal lobes of the brain can cause changes in behavior. To answer the question of whether or not I'd be concerned if your scans were MY brain, the rationale is this; we don't treat the scan or lab values we treat the patient. In other words, it is a collection of things that need to be considered before making treatment decisions. To put it another way, theoretically one could have a scan that after several years looks worse, but if the patient is doing better, its reasonable to wait and do nothing medication-wise or surgical for that matter.

[MG (Admin)]

Hi there.

Morpheus..you should be able to post the images directly to this topic when replying by adding an attachment using the "upload attachment" menu below your post.

Let me know if there's any problem.