How shall we investigate dementia to exclude intracranial meningiomas as cause? An analysis of 34 patients with meningiomas.

Thirty-four patients (20 female and 14 male) were admitted to a neurological department between 1974 and 1983 with intracranial meningioma. The mean age was 56.9 years. The patient material was divided in two groups, one with dementia (11 patients) and one without (23 patients). The most frequent symptom leading to admission was mental deterioration in the dementia group and epileptic seizures in the other group. The location of the tumours was similar in both groups. In all patients with dementia a combination of history, neurological examination and electroencephalogram clearly indicated a focal brain lesion.