Table 1. Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of Participants in the Neuroimaging Study.
| Characteristic | No. (%) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anomalous health incidents | Present before anomalous health incidenta | Present during or after anomalous health incidenta | US government control participants | NIH control participants | |
| No. | 81 | 29 | 19 | ||
| Age, mean (SD), y | 42.0 (9.1) | 44 (10.1) | 41 (12.7) | ||
| Sex, No. (%) | |||||
| Female | 40 (49) | 10 (34) | 10 (53) | ||
| Male | 41 (51) | 19 (66) | 9 (47) | ||
| Education from first grade, mean (SD), y | 17.0 (1.9) | 17.8 (1.9) | 17 (2.0) | ||
| US government employee family member | 10 (12) | NA | NA | ||
| Reduced capacity and/or unable to work due to anomalous health incidents | 25 (31) | ||||
| Time from first incident to research MRI acquisition, median (range), d | 80 (14-1505) | NA | NA | ||
| Sound or pressure | 70 (86) | NA | NA | ||
| Directionality and/or locality | 57 (66) | NA | NA | ||
| Symptoms | |||||
| Headache | 33 (38) | 60 (70) | 12 (41) | 11 (58) | |
| Sleep dysfunction | 11 (17) | 47 (60) | 1 (3) | 3 (16) | |
| Depression | 11 (14)b | 18 (22)b | 0c | 1 (5)c | |
| Vision changes | 9 (11) | 30 (37) | 0 | 0 | |
| Posttraumatic stress disorder | 7 (9)b | 7 (9)b | 0b | 0c | |
| Imbalance | 4 (5) | 43 (53) | 0 | 1 (5) | |
| Cognitive | 1 (1) | 55 (64) | 0 | 0 | |
| Dizziness | 1 (1) | 32 (37) | 0 | 0 | |
| Diagnoses | |||||
| Migraine headache | 22 (27) | 32 (39) | 2 (7) | 4 (21) | |
| Tinnitus | 13 (16) | 45 (55) | 0 | 0 | |
| Peripheral neuropathy | 9 (11) | 11 (14) | 0 | 0 | |
| Cranial neuropathy | 5 (6) | 6 (7) | 0 | 0 | |
| Headache, unspecified | 4 (5) | 13 (16) | 12 (41) | 6 (32) | |
| Cancer | 3 (4) | 5 (6) | 0 | 0 | |
| Strabismus | 2 (2) | 3 (4) | 0 | 0 | |
| Seizure disorder | 1 (1) | 1 (1) | 1 (3) | 0 | |
| Functional neurologic disorder | 1 (1) | 20 (25) | 0 | 0 | |
| New daily persistent headache | 0 | 20 (25) | 0 | 0 | |
| Current cataract | 1 (1) | 21 (26) | 0 | 1 (5) | |
| Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo | 1 (1) | 3 (4) | 0 | 0 | |
| Tension-type headache | 0 | 2 (2) | 0 | 0 | |
Abbreviations: NA, not applicable; NIH, National Institutes of Health.
a
Data in these columns are not mutually exclusive. If a patient had symptoms or diagnoses before the anomalous health indecent and continued to have it after the anomalous health incident, they are counted in both columns.
b
Based on history and physical examination.
c
NIH control participants were administered the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist—Civilian and a cutoff of greater than 29 was used to indicate clinically significant posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/assessment/documents/PCL_handoutDSM4.pdf).