Right temporal lobe glioma?

Glioma is a very common malignant intracranial tumor, which has a great impact on human health. Although patients with mild gliomas can still survive after surgery and the survival period is still relatively long, if the patient is older, the survival rate will generally drop a lot. If you accidentally get a glioma, you must maintain a good attitude and never think that you are unimportant about life because you have a disease.

Like other tumors, glioma is caused by the interaction of innate genetic high-risk factors and environmental carcinogenic factors. Some known genetic diseases, such as neurofibromatosis (type I) and tuberculous sclerosis, are genetic susceptibility factors for brain gliomas. Patients with these diseases have a much higher chance of developing glioma than the general population. In addition, some environmental carcinogenic factors may also be related to the occurrence of glioma. Studies have shown that electromagnetic radiation, such as the use of mobile phones, may be associated with the development of gliomas. However, there is currently no evidence that there is a causal relationship between the two. Although most glioblastoma patients have had macrophage virus infection, and evidence of macrophage virus infection has been found in the vast majority of glioblastoma pathological specimens, it is not clear whether there is a causal relationship between the two.

The symptoms and signs caused by gliomas mainly depend on their space-occupying effect and the functions of the affected brain areas. Due to its "space-occupying" effect in space, gliomas can cause patients to experience symptoms such as headaches, nausea and vomiting, epilepsy, and blurred vision. In addition, due to its impact on the function of local brain tissue, it can also cause other symptoms in patients. For example, optic nerve gliomas can cause vision loss in patients; spinal cord gliomas can cause limb pain, numbness, and muscle weakness in patients; central area gliomas can cause movement and sensory disorders in patients; and language area gliomas can cause difficulties in language expression and understanding in patients. Gliomas produce symptoms at different speeds depending on their degree of malignancy. For example, the medical history of patients with low-grade gliomas is often several months or even years, while the medical history of patients with high-grade gliomas is often several weeks to several months. Based on the patient's medical history, symptoms and physical signs, the location and degree of malignancy of the lesion can be preliminarily inferred.

After the patient has clinical symptoms, the most common examinations performed when visiting the doctor include head CT and MRI.

1. Head CT

It can be preliminarily determined whether there is an intracranial mass. Gliomas often appear as intracerebral, low-signal lesions on CT. Low-grade gliomas generally have no peritumoral edema, while high-grade gliomas are often accompanied by peritumoral edema. In addition, CT is superior to MRI in detecting tumor bleeding and calcification. Bleeding caused by tumor stroke appears as high signal on CT, indicating that the tumor is more malignant. The presence of calcification in the tumor indicates that the pathological type of the tumor is likely to be oligodendroblastic.

2. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

It is superior to CT examination in showing the location and nature of the tumor. Low-grade gliomas often appear as brain lesions with low T1 signals and high T2 signals on magnetic resonance imaging. They are mainly located in the white matter and often have clear boundaries with the surrounding brain tissue on the images. Peritumoral edema is often mild and the lesions generally do not enhance. High-grade gliomas generally have uneven signals, with low signals on T1 and high signals on T2. ​​However, if bleeding is present, high signals may sometimes also be present on T1. The tumor often has obvious uneven enhancement. The boundary between the tumor and the surrounding brain tissue is unclear. Peritumoral edema is relatively severe. Sometimes, it is not easy to distinguish glioma from other lesions, such as inflammation, ischemia, etc.

3. Others

Other examinations may be needed, including positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), etc., to further understand the sugar metabolism and other molecular metabolism of the lesions, so as to make a differential diagnosis. In addition, sometimes in order to clarify the relationship between the lesion and the function of the surrounding brain tissue, a so-called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is also performed. Through these examinations, we can generally make a preliminary clinical judgment on the location and degree of malignancy of the glioma before surgery. However, the final diagnosis depends on the pathological diagnosis after surgery.