Can brain aneurysm heal itself before CT, or MRI is conducted?

Question

Started feeling weird in Dec, had CT performed in early april. Is there anyway that the aneurysm could have healed before the test. Therefore not showing on the scan?

Answer 1

I wish I knew what you were told by the physician in December. Did he or she say your symptoms were consistent with a cerebral aneurysm or were you somehow diagnosed without radiographic imaging?

Is it 4 months since the CT scan (or possibly CT angiogram) and you're curious as to whether the radiologists may have missed the "aneurysm"?

It is very difficult to tell whether you (or the person you're asking about) was misdiagnosed as having had an aneurysm when something else (possibly some sort of vascular headache) caused the symptoms (i.e. feeling weird).

An unruptured aneurysm usually has to be quite large to cause symptoms (though any *ruptured* aneurysm will cause a subarachnoid hemorrhage to some degree and will be symptomatic to some extent -- there are *many* presentations).

If it truly has been 4 months since the last CT which you were told was "negative," there may be an alternate explanation for the symptoms that began ~ 8 months ago.

Aneurysms do not shrink ... they only become more friable and more likely to rupture each year (depending on a number of variables ... a different can of worms altogether!) ... ask any neurosurgeon whether he or she would operate on an unruptured aneurysm (proven to be real by the "gold standard:" a 4-vessel cerebral angiogram) and you'll get different answers).

The short answer to your question is no.

Aneurysms that have had a "leak" (or a "sentinal bleed") do heal by clotting off, but are still there and will remain just as visible after "healing."

Answer 2

MRA with contrast is not bad, but CT isn't sensitive enough a test, even with the 64 slice units, to exclude an aneurysm. It won't even reliably exclude an acute bleed. That's why when you have a thunderclap headache, the emergency physician is going to want to do a lumbar puncture. If both imaging and LP are negative, the risks are usually low enough not to go farther, but in some cases you have to go all the way to angiography still. Of course, you'd have to be nuts to put yourself through all that based on paranoia. (And how's this last for a bit of circular reasoning?)

Answer 3

I have never seen an aneurysm repair itself no matter where it was located. However I dont think CT or MR is sensitive enough for that and I would opt for a brain angiogram to be sure

Answer 4

no a brain aneurysm cannot heal itself..it would have to be removed

Answer 5

Not likely.