ABSTRACT
Early MRI, available 24 h a day and at weekends, will make a timely diagnosis in cases of cerebellar infarct and a normal initial CT scan does not exclude it. In many emergency departments MRI is not as routinely available out of hours as CT. It is important to appreciate the varied symptomatology and signs of cerebellar infarcts in order to avoid misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis and to remember that, apart from requiring treatment with anticoagulation for the cerebellar infarct itself, the complications of cerebellar infarct may require surgical intervention. Vertebral artery dissection as a cause of cerebellar infarct may require anticoagulation or endovascular therapy.
Subject(s)
Cerebellum/blood supply , Cerebral Infarction/diagnosis , Vertebral Artery Dissection/diagnosis , Aspirin/therapeutic use , Cerebral Infarction/drug therapy , Cerebral Infarction/etiology , False Negative Reactions , Humans , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Male , Middle Aged , Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors/therapeutic use , Tomography, X-Ray Computed , Vertebral Artery Dissection/complications , Vertebral Artery Dissection/drug therapyABSTRACT
In recent years, there appears to have been an increase in the number of postal questionnaires being received by ENT consultants. Questionnaires with unsound methodology waste the time of those who send and receive them, as inferences cannot be made from their results. In this study,a review was performed on a sample of 19 questionnaire studies published in two ENT journals between January 1998 and December 2002. Each study was given a 30-point score, based on the quality of its methodology. The average score assigned to each study was 32 percent, suggesting that the quality of methodology was generally poor. These results should serve as a warning to those embarking on and those interpreting research of this kind.
