アブストラクト | OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the utility of different symptoms, alone or combined, presented to primary care for an adult brain tumour diagnosis. DESIGN AND SETTING: Matched case-control study, using the data from Clinical Practice Research Datalink (2000-2014) from primary care consultations in the UK. METHOD: All presentations within 6 months of the index diagnosis date (cases) or equivalent (controls) were coded into 32 symptom groups. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive values (PPVs) and positive likelihood ratios were calculated for symptoms and combinations of symptoms with headache and cognitive features. Diagnostic odds ratios were calculated using conditional logistic regression, adjusted for age group, sex and Charlson comorbidity. Stratified analyses were performed for age group, sex and whether the tumour was of primary or secondary origin. RESULTS: We included 8,184 cases and 28,110 controls. Seizure had the highest PPV of 1.6% (95% CI 1.4% to 1.7%) followed by weakness 1.5% (1.3 to 1.7) and confusion 1.4% (1.3 to 1.5). Combining headache with other symptoms increased the PPV. For example, headache plus combined cognitive symptoms PPV 7.2% (6.0 to 8.6); plus weakness 4.4% (3.2 to 6.2), compared with headache alone PPV 0.1%. The diagnostic ORs were generally larger for patients <70 years; this was most marked for confusion, seizure and visual symptoms. CONCLUSION: We found seizure, weakness and confusion had relatively higher predictive values than many other symptoms. Headache on its own was a weak predictor but this was enhanced when combined with other symptoms especially in younger patients. Clinicians need to actively search for other neurological symptoms such as cognitive problems. |
ジャーナル名 | BMJ open |
Pubmed追加日 | 2019/9/1 |
投稿者 | Ozawa, Mio; Brennan, Paul M; Zienius, Karolis; Kurian, Kathreena M; Hollingworth, William; Weller, David; Grant, Robin; Hamilton, Willie; Ben-Shlomo, Yoav |
組織名 | Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.;Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, UK.;General Practice, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.;Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.;Primary Care Diagnostics, University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, UK.;Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK;Y.Ben-Shlomo@bristol.ac.uk. |
Pubmed リンク | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31471440/ |