Introduction: Studies on the presenting symptoms of glioma in adults in the age of readily available MRI imaging are scarce. This study investigates presenting symptoms of glioma and assesses the correlations of the presenting symptoms with patient age and histopathological class of the tumor.
Methods: A retrospective review of the medical records of histologically verified glioma patients treated in Turku University Hospital, during 2006-2010 was conducted. The associations between the presenting symptoms and other covariates were assessed individually.
Results: The most common presenting symptoms of glioma were seizure and cognitive disorder. Patients presenting with seizures were youger than patients with cognitive disorders, and the grade of the tumor was also found to significantly correlate significantly with the most common presenting symptoms. Age group and tumor grade were statistically significant factors of cognitive disorder (p = 0.0037 and p = 0.0069) and age group of seizure (p = 0.0065). The associations between the presenting symptoms and the anatomical location, spread into adjacent brain areas, laterality of the tumor or site of diagnosis were found to be statistically insignificant. Headache was not a common presenting symptom in glioma patients.
Conclusions: The main presenting symptoms of glioma in adults in the MRI age still are seizures and cognitive disorder. Patient age and tumor grade correlate positively with the incidence of cognitive disorder and patient age negatively with incidence of seizure as a presenting symptom Headache is an uncommon manifestation and does not appear as a sole symptom.
Patient Care: The patients with malignant gliomas can be diagnosed earlier which gives possibility to instant operative treatment. Early diagnosing of gliomas should prolog the survival of the patients due to better resection in early stage.
Solheim et al 2014 concluded "the association between MRI scans per capita and overall survival was no longer statistically significant" which also emphasize the importance of the early clinical diagnose.
Learning Objectives: By the conclusion of this session, participants should be able to: 1) identify the main symptoms of malignant gliomas and recognise these patients in early stage.
2)Discuss, in small groups of correlations of common presenting symptoms and the grade of glioma. 3) Identify the patients as early as possible to prolong survival of the patients with malignant gliomas with instant treatment.