Published 25 August 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3107
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3107

Editorials

Incidental findings on brain magnetic resonance imaging

Consensus from clinicians and researchers on management is urgently needed

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Incidental findings on brain imaging are defined as previously undetected abnormalities of potential clinical relevance that are unexpectedly discovered and unrelated to the purpose of the imaging. Incidental findings are increasingly detected in clinical practice, with screening, and in the research setting. Data on the prevalence of these abnormalities are scarce, the clinical course of the findings is often unknown, and—as a result—the management of such lesions is not clear. As a community, we need to set standards on how to deal with such findings.

In the linked study (doi:10.1136/bmj.b3016), Morris and colleagues systematically reviewed the literature on incidental findings on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and found a prevalence of 0.7% (95% confidence interval 0.47% to 0.98%) for neoplastic lesions including meningeoma (0.3%), and 2.0% (1.1% to 3.1%) for non-neoplastic lesions including aneurysms (0.4%).¹ The authors state that they have increased the precision of existing estimates on . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Department of Radiology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Centre Rotterdam, 3015 CE Rotterdam, Netherlands

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