Supratentorial tumours. Part II: Tumours of neuroglial cells

A clinical sign of low grade astrocytoma

A useful sign in diagnosing an astrocytoma is described. It consists simply of observing whether the patient moves on to the CT table of his own accord. A case is presented where the CT findings were of a large, low attenuation lesion in the cerebral white matter and where the sign was positive. This indicated that the diagnosis was a low grade astrocytoma rather than infarction, cerebritis or oedema of another cause.