COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY FOR NONTRAUMATIC HEADACHE - CURRENT UTILIZATION AND COST-EFFECTIVENESS

A retrospective study was performed at two teaching hospitals - one in the United States and one in Canada - to determine the results of com puted tomography (CT) examinations of the head in patients with nontra umatic headache. Of 1111 examinations performed over a 3-year period, 120 (10.8%) demonstrated an acute intracranial abnormality, such as he morrhage, infarction or tumour; the frequency of such abnormalities wa s highest among inpatients and subjects over 40 years of age. Cranial and extracranial abnormalities, such as sinusitis and metastases to th e calvarium, were found in 40 (3.6%) of the cases. Chronic abnormaliti es, such as cerebral atrophy of remote infarction, were the most signi ficant findings in 202 (18.2%) of the cases. The cost of finding each case of acute intracranial abnormality was $5962 (US); for subarachnoi d hemorrhage among patients in the emergency department, it was $15 83 7 (US).