'Phantom Tumors,' Linked to Obesity, Plague More Children

May 6, 2010— -- Lauren Ashley said she can still remember the moment doctors discovered her "phantom brain tumor," even though she only 5 years old at the time.

She was at the hospital recovering from her second spinal tap that year after repeatedly telling her mother her "eyes hurt." Ashley, now 15, said she still gets headaches daily.

"They are really sharp and burning, literally it feels like someone has a knife through your head. I'm constantly in pain," the Gahanna, Ohio, teen said.

An ophthalmologist took one look and told her family she probably had a brain tumor.

But later imaging tests showed no tumors growing in her brain.

Then, the day of the spinal tap, doctors came back with a confirmation. Ashley had pseudotumor cerebri -- an unexplained buildup of fluid in the brain that pushes on the optic nerve, often causing headaches, vision loss or even blindness. Some people with the condition may report visual problems, nausea and tinnitus, a ringing in the ears.

Most people who develop pseudotumor cerebri are obese, although the link is not well understood. Doctors say a growing number of children are developing the condition, which usually appears in middle-aged women.

"Individuals would come in with many of the same symptoms of headache or vision loss that a person with a tumor would have. That's where the name [pseudotumor] comes from," said Dr. Steve Roach, chief of neurology and vice chair of pediatrics at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Roach, a professor at Ohio State University, is part of a team of doctors who opened up the first center dedicated to treating children with pseudotumor cerebri, also known as idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH).

"Probably two thirds of people with pseudotumor cerebri are obese," said Roach.

He said that in some cases, simply losing weight will stop the symptoms but not in others. "There's another third of people who aren't obese," he said.

Ashley falls into the category of children who are not obese.

But regardless of whether the person with the condition is obese, Roach says doctors are unsure why IIH develops in the first place.