Most of the time, individuals discover out they’ve a mind aneurysm accidentally. You get imaging for an additional medical situation, and the mind aneurysm reveals up on the scan. But typically, mind aneurysms are hereditary, which means they run in households. A latest assessment of dozens of analysis research discovered 5-20% of sufferers with a mind aneurysm have a member of the family with one.
Why a Family Medical History Matters
Knowing your danger for mind aneurysms can save your life. When a mind aneurysm bursts open (ruptures), it causes a kind of bleeding stroke (subarachnoid hemorrhage). That’s a life-threatening emergency that may kill you. If yow will discover out you’ve a mind aneurysm earlier than it bursts, medical doctors can watch and deal with it.
Matthew Thomas, ScM, CGC, a UVA Health genetic counselor, helps individuals perceive if they’re impacted by their household medical historical past. We requested him who ought to take into consideration genetic counseling or screening for mind aneurysms.
Should I Be Screened for Brain Aneurysms?
Worried About Brain Aneurysms?
See a UVA Health specialist and discover out if genetic counseling or screening for hereditary mind aneurysms might help you.
If you’ve 2 or extra blood relations who’ve or had a mind aneurysm, Thomas recommends asking your physician a couple of hereditary mind aneurysm screening. This recommendation is backed by American Heart Association/American Stroke Association pointers.
Remember, somebody who had a bleeding (hemorrhagic) stroke could have had a mind aneurysm. So, be certain to search out out what kind of stroke a member of the family had.
At UVA Health, we use magnetic resonance angiography or computed tomography angiogram to display screen for mind aneurysms.
Do I Need Genetic Counseling for Brain Aneurysms?
Seeing a genetic counselor helps you find out about your individual or different relations’ danger for a medical situation. They enable you to perceive what your private and household medical historical past might imply. If genetic testing might enable you to study extra, a counselor will clarify how that works and what you would possibly discover out.
Why get genetic counseling for mind aneurysms? “Genetic testing could assist a affected person know in the event that they’re in danger for different aneurysms that have an effect on their mind and different elements of their physique. It may assist know if different relations are in danger for a similar downside,” Thomas says.
Thomas recommends genetic counseling when you have a mind aneurysm and 1 of those:
At UVA Health, your neurologist or neurosurgeon can refer you to Thomas.
What Happens When I See a Genetic Counselor for Brain Aneurysms?
When Thomas sees a affected person about their danger for mind aneurysms, he often begins by asking a single query: “I need to know what they’re hoping and anticipating from our go to to verify I perceive what could be most useful for them.”
Next, he:
- Makes positive what he realized out of your medical file is right
- Talks about your loved ones historical past to search out out if anybody had an aneurysm, stroke, or main vascular downside
If you’re wholesome however have a powerful household historical past, medical information from your loved ones members who had a mind aneurysm helps.
“Medical records often confirm what the patient was told by their relative, but sometimes we learn that there was a different vascular (blood vessel) problem. For example, some patients may have a different vascular disease in their brain like an arteriovenous malformation, so they may need to be evaluated for a separate group of genetic conditions,” Thomas explains.
Based on these solutions, he could advocate you see a geneticist or different physician to see when you have a syndrome that may trigger aneurysms.
Finally, he explains genetic testing and helps you determine if it’s best for you. “Sometimes genetic testing isn’t advisable or desired by a affected person,” Thomas says. At that time, he strikes the query as to if different relations want screening.
Why Aneurysms Cluster in Families
There’s nonetheless loads to find out about hereditary mind aneurysms. For instance, we don’t know which gene or genes trigger mind aneurysms.
“For us to be able to offer more helpful genetic testing to patients and their families, we need more research on why aneurysms cluster in some families and not others,” Thomas notes. “At UVA Health, two of our neurologists, Brad Worrall, MD, and Andy Southerland, MD, lead efforts to find and understand genes linked with aneurysm and stroke and participate in multinational research initiatives such as the International Stroke Genetics Consortium.”