Investigations Flashcards
Patients with new onset cranial autonomic features require what imaging?
MRI brain and MR angiogram
What imaging is used for suspected brain tumours?
CT and MRI
What imaging is used for suspected meningiomas?
CT and MRI
What investigations may be used to diagnose viral meningitis?
CSF PCR
Viral stool culture
Throat swabs
What investigation is mainly used to diagnose bacterial meningitis?
Lumbar puncture
Four tubes of CSF are taken from a lumbar puncture in bacterial meningitis. What is each tube tested for?
Tube 1 - haematology
Tube 2 - microbiology
Tube 3 - chemistry
Tube 4 - haematology
What imaging modality is used to distinguish between bleeds and infarcts in the week following a stroke?
CT
What can pick up congenital hydrocephalus antenatally?
USS
What imaging is mainly used to detect normal pressure hydrocephalus?
CT
in idiopathic intracranial hypertension, lumbar puncture pressure is above what?
25 cm CSF
Give some investigations that may be used for spontaneous intracranial hypertension
MRI
Lumbar puncture
What investigation must be done in any patient who has fallen due to a suspected seizure?
ECG
Give some indications for an acute CT in patients who have fallen due to a suspected seizure
Skull fracture
Deteriorating GCS
Focal signs
Head injury
Give the four main uses of an EEG
Classifying epilepsy
Confirm non-epileptic attacks
Surgical evaluation
Confirm non-convulsive status
What imaging is used to diagnose multiple sclerosis?
MRI
What is typically found in the CSF of MS patients?
Oligoclonal bands
What investigations are used in sleep disorders?
Overnight polysomnography
Multiple sleep latency test
In patients with narcolepsy CSF can be measured for low levels of what?
Hypocretin
Patients with suspected cauda equina syndrome must get what imaging in an emergency?
MRI
What imaging is commonly used to assess disc prolapse?
MRI
Peripheral neuropathies are diagnosed using which investigations?
Electromyography (EMG)
Nerve conduction studies
Give some examples of peripheral neuropathies which may be diagnosed through EMG or NCS
Guillain Barre syndrome
Acute/chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculopathy
Hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy (Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease)
What antibody is present in myasthenia gravis?
Anti-AChR (antibody to acetyl choline receptors)
What test may be done if anti-AChR level is normal but myasthenia gravis is still suspected?
Electromyography (EMG)
What investigations are commonly done in suspected motor neurone disease?
MRI
EMG and NCS
What investigations are commonly used in suspected subarachnoid haemorrhage?
CT
Lumbar puncture
Cerebral angiography
What is seen in the lumbar puncture of an SAH patient?
Xanthochromic CSF
What is the gold standard investigation in subarachnoid haemorrhage?
Cerebral angiography
What urgent investigation is used in intracerebral haemorrhage?
CT
In patients with ICH with a suspected vascular anomaly what investigation is done?
Angiography
What imaging is used to confirm the diagnosis of intraventricular haemorrhage?
CT
