"Anorexia saved my life": coincidental anorexia nervosa and cerebral meningioma.
OBJECTIVE
We report on a 13-year-old girl with coincidental occult intracranial tumor and early-onset anorexia nervosa.


METHODS
The cerebral meningioma was discovered fortuitously as the result of a research project using SPECT imaging to locate a neurobiological substrate in patients with anorexia nervosa. Without SPECT, the meningioma would have remained undiagnosed until it had become symptomatic. The two conditions appear to have been completely unrelated.


CONCLUSIONS
The case highlights two important points. First, intracranial pathology should also be considered however certain is the diagnosis of early-onset anorexia nervosa. Second, neuroimaging plays an important part in diagnosing early-onset anorexia nervosa, both from a clinical and a research prospective.
O'Brien
A
A
St. George's Eating Disorder Service, London, England.
Hugo
P
P
Stapleton
S
S
Lask
B
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008579:Meningioma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon