Rare or what??

[LADavid]

Jazzfunkanne -- I believe you are a Scot, correct?  And you say there a lot of ANs -- in Scotland?  Hmmm.  Could be that genetic link.

[mindyandy]

Strange....whenever I go see a new doctor and they ask about my history & I write down AN....they always ask....HOW DID YOU FIND THAT? Like its very surprising that I know I have an AN?
STRANGE!!!!

[jazzfunkanne]

Hi Daivd, yes i am from scotland, my consultant and his team see over 300 patients a year and that is Glasgow only.

[mema]

Jazzfunkanne,

My brain spasms are a feeling of movement inside my head.  Of lately it feels like a minature roller coaster in my head.  My neuro-onycologist referred to nerve damage at one time, that I have a super sensitivity to things that might not bother someone else.


mema

[Jim Scott]

Acoustic neuroma is relatively rare, whether its 1 or even 2 persons diagnosed out of every 100,000.  To put this in some perspective, American Cancer Society statistics show 126 women in every 100,000 will develop breast cancer this year.  59 in every 100,000 (men & women) will develop colon cancer this year.  6 of every 100,000 (men & women) will develop brain cancer this year. 

I don't believe you can make a realistic judgment about the incidences of acoustic neuroma in the general population based on the number of people posting here.  This will always be skewed due to the fact that this a site specifically dedicated to supporting AN patients.  I'm sure that other sites dedicated to specific conditions (i.e. cancer) would give the appearance of that particular medical condition being more prevalent than it actually is.  Anyone who happens to know more than one person with an acoustic neuroma may be somewhat unusual but it doesn't make the condition any less rare.  I agree that more frequent use of the MRI scanner is likely 'discovering' more AN's, hence the 2% statistic from Denmark.  I'm sure there may be more than 1 or 2 ANs out of every 100,000 people but unless ANs are found in triple (or more) their current number in the general population, they will still be considered rare.

Lucky us.

Jim

[ppearl214]

ANother fun fact.... AN's make up approx 6% of all brain tumor diagnoses..... (incl other benign.. and malignant tumors... I believe Gliomas are the #1 kind of brain tumor).

I like being rare. It just makes me speshal.

Yep, An'ers are rare... go figure.
Phyl

[LADavid]

OK, based on what Jazzfunkanne said that there are 300 patients a year in Glasgow and Glasgow has a population of about 2 million, if my math is correct, that would mean that the incidence of an AN in Glasgow is 1 in about 6,600 compared to this country at 1 in 100,000.  Now I realize there are a lot of variables and aberations, but going back to what I noticed before, there seems to be a lot of Scot and Scot/Irish folks on this Forum.  It seems odd to me that there is such a wide disparity between Glasgow, Scotland and the United States.  Of course I realize that many ANs probably go undetected in less medically sophisticated rural areas -- especially in lower income groups -- as compared to city areas -- but 6,600 compared to 100,000 is a wide range.  Now if my Algebra is correct (which it may not be since I floundered around in Algebra I most of my collegiate career) using the same proportion in Glasgow, there would be 45,000 ANs in the United States every year not 3000.  Why?

[saralynn143]

David, the 300 people treated in Glasgow may not all be from Glasgow. It may just be the best place to go for treatment.

Sara

[LADavid]

Very true.  But Scotland's population is just 5 million and there is another metro area in Edinbergh.  I like looking into statistcs so I've got a wee project.  Jazzfunkanne, do you know how many ANs are diagnosed annually in all of Scotland -- or in Edinbergh?

[LADavid]

OK, I just did some calculations.  Even if all the Scotland ANers went to only Glasgow annually for treatment, it would still represent 18,000 annually in this country at the same proportion.  Or 1 in every 16,000 in Scotland compared to 1 in every 100,000 here.

[saralynn143]

We also need to know how many are newly diagnosed,and how many are follow-ups that were diagnosed in an earlier year. "Treated" could mean either.

Not to say that 1 in 100,000 isn't a low estimate, or there aren't more ANs in Scotland. Numbers and statistics are just hard to pin down.

Sara

[Kaybo]

Ate there a lot of fish hatcheries there??   

K

[saralynn143]

Cell phone towers?

[Kaybo]

I meant "are"!!!!!!!!!!   

K

[jazzfunkanne]

Hi David am not sure how many patients there are in scotland, the other citys for treatment are Aberdeen , Edinburgh and Inverness, Glasgow takes in the West of Scotland. I will ask my consulant next month when i see him if he knows the figure for scotland. I was interested in your Scot/Irish theory i am half scots half irish .