As a matter of fact, that might happen more than 10 percent of the time, according to Dutch researchers who found that 7.2 percent of those who received MRIs had blocked blood vessels in their brains, 1.8 percent had cerebral aneurysms, and 1.6 had benign brain tumors.
"Our study shows that incidental findings are much more frequent than was thought previously," said study co-author Dr. Aad van der Lugt, an associate professor of radiology at Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Comment: One has to wonder what kind of effect it has on psychological make up of those individuals, even if there are no apparent physiological symptoms.
From Political Ponerology by Andrew M. Lobaczewski
Brain tissue is very limited in its regenerative ability. If it is
damaged and the change subsequently heals, a process of rehabilitation
can take place wherein the neighboring healthy tissue
takes over the function of the damaged portion. This substitution
is never quite perfect; thus some deficits in skill and proper
psychological processes can be detected in even cases of very
small damage by using the appropriate tests. Specialists are
aware of the variegated causes for the origin of such damage,
including trauma and infections. We should point out here that
the psychological results of such changes, as we can observe
many years later, are more heavily dependent upon the location
of the damage itself in the brain mass, whether on the surface
or within, than they are upon the cause which brought them
about. The quality of these consequences also depends upon
when they occurred in the person's lifetime. Regarding pathological
factors of ponerogenic processes, perinatal or early
infant damages have more active results than damages which
occurred later.
The findings are published in the Nov. 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The researchers began this study, because MRI and other imaging scans are being used more frequently in research studies and as diagnostic aids in clinical practice. Because of this increasing use, van der Lugt and his colleagues felt it was important to know how often asymptomatic disorders might show up.
To assess the rate of incidental findings, the researchers culled data from the Rotterdam Study and included information from 2,000 study volunteers between the ages of 46 and 97, with an average age of 63 years. All had undergone a screening MRI and, prior to the MRI, had no known brain abnormalities.
One hundred and forty-five of the study participants -- 7.2 percent -- were found to have a brain infarct, which means the blood supply to a specific part of the brain is blocked. Thirty-five people -- 1.8 percent -- were found to have an aneurysm in the brain. An aneurysm is a defect in the blood vessel wall that can rupture and cause a potentially fatal hemorrhage.
Thirty-one people -- 1.6 percent -- were found to have benign brain tumors, mostly meningiomas. Only one person was found to have a malignant brain tumor.
Some people had more than one condition.
The researchers had expected to find some people with undiagnosed infarcts, because blood vessel changes are common in older adults, according to van der Lugt, but "we were very surprised to find such a high frequency of other findings such as aneurysm and meningiomas, as previous studies reported much lower frequencies."
He said it's especially important for researchers conducting brain MRIs to be aware that they may have a significant number of incidental findings, so these findings aren't attributed to a study treatment, for example.
Van der Lugt said that general screening for these conditions wouldn't be recommended, because it's not yet clear if these asymptomatic conditions should be treated.
Comment: But they shouldn't be ignored either. Consider this:
From Political Ponerology by Andrew M. Lobaczewski
In a much larger segment of the bearers of brain tissue damage,
the negative deformation of their characters grows in the
course of time. It takes on variegated mental pictures, depending
upon the properties and localization of these changes, their
time of origin, and also the life conditions of the individual
after their occurrence. We will call such character disorders -
characteropathies. Some characteropathies play an outstanding
role as pathological agents in the processes of the genesis of
evil.[...]
The frontal areas of the cerebral
cortex (10A and B acc. to the Brodmann division) are virtually
present in no creature except man; they are composed of the
phylogenetically youngest nervous tissue. [...]
Damage to this area occurred rather frequently: at or near birth, especially for premature infants, and later in life as a
result of various causes.[...]
Brain cortex damage in these areas selectively impairs the
above mentioned function without impairing memory, associative
capacity, or, in particular, such instinct-based feelings and
functions as, for instance, the ability to intuit a psychological
situation. The general intelligence of an individual is thus not
greatly reduced. Children with such a defect are almost normal
students; difficulties emerge suddenly in upper grades and affect
principally these parts of the curriculum which place burden
on the above function.
The pathological character of such people, generally containing
a component of hysteria, develops through the years.
The non-damaged psychological functions become overdeveloped
to compensate, which means that instinctive and affective
reactions predominate. Relatively vital people become belligerent,
risk-happy, and brutal in both word and deed.
Persons with an innate talent for intuiting psychological
situations tend to take advantage of this gift in an egotistical
and ruthless fashion. In the thought process of such people, a
short cut way develops which bypasses the handicapped function,
thus leading from associations directly to words, deeds,
and decisions which are not subject to any dissuasion. Such
individuals interpret their talent for intuiting situations and
making split-second oversimplified decisions as a sign of their
superiority compared to normal people, who need to think for
long time, experiencing self-doubt and conflicting motivations.
The fate of such creatures does not deserve to be pondered
long.
Dr. Arno Fried, chairman of the department of neurosurgery at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, agreed.
"Screening would probably create too many problems unless someone was experiencing specific symptoms. If someone has recurrent headaches, it may be worthwhile to screen with MRI just to make sure it's not a tumor creating the headaches."
He said neurosurgeons are often presented with incidental findings, because scanning technology is so good.
"The problem is what to do about incidental findings," he noted. "What's most important is to correlate clinical status with what we see on the scan. Most of the time, we won't do anything about those incidental findings. Some people will be asymptomatic forever."
Fried suggested that people, "Don't panic when an incidental finding is seen. Many people don't need surgery." He said that while a brain tumor may sound scary, many that are small and aren't causing symptoms don't need to be removed. Aneurysms may require treatment, but if they do, it's generally better that it was discovered early.
The bottom line, said Fried, is that "technology and imaging don't take the place of good clinical judgment. If the technology is taken out of context, it may lead to surgeries that don't need to be done."
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