Please help us out with the reason for my dad's headache.

Question

Hi doctor,

My father is 67 years old. He had a habit of consuming alcohol and tobacco. For the past three years, he has a headache that starts at any point of time. He also had a bit of memory loss and malfunctioning of ears and eyes. So, we had a computed tomography (CT) scan of his brain done. Some medications were suggested by the doctor, which he continued taking for three to four months. I lost those case sheets along with his prescription while shifting our home, but I have CT report. Please interpret his CT scan and suggest me the diagnosis and medicines. Here is the attachment of CT scan for your reference.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com. Your father's CT scan report (attachment removed to protect patient identity) describes two things as follows. Loss of blood supply in small areas of the brain. This will not cause any problem to him. But, the underlying problem of narrow neck vessels or hyperlipidemia (abnormal lipid or lipoprotein level in the blood) should be treated. Mucosal thickening in the sinuses is due to chronic sinus infection that will cause headache mostly on the front side of the head. Based on this, your doctor might have suggested him Aspirin 75 mg and Atorvas 40 mg (Atorvastatin) daily before bed and antibiotics for his headache. I suggest him a Doppler ultrasound of the neck to be done to diagnose if any neck vessels are narrowing and a lipid profile test to check for hyperlipidemia.

Answer 2

possible adverse effects can be : if his neck vessels are narrowed or small vessels are having atherosclerosis , than he can have multiple small infracts over a period of time / an episode of stroke at once. I request you to consider my advice to prevent this.