The role of unenhanced CT alone for the management of headache in an emergency department. A feasibility study

Characterizing headache patients admitted from the emergency department: a retrospective study

Background

Headaches are a common complaint in emergency department (ED) presentations, but the demographics, clinical characteristics, and outcomes of patients admitted with headaches remain understudied. This retrospective study aims to investigate patients admitted with a chief complaint of headache.

Methods

The study examined the triage database of our ED from 01/01/2020 to 31/12/2022 to identify patients admitted to either the wards or intensive care unit (ICU) with headache as their primary complaint.

Results

Out of 347 identified patients, 100 met the inclusion criteria. The gender distribution was equal. The majority of cases (36%) were between 31 and 45 years old. Headache and dizziness were the most common complaints (54%), followed by chest pain (18%) and abdominal pain (10%). Neurological system involvement was observed in 60% of cases. Computed Tomography (CT) scans were performed in 87% of cases, while Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans were done in 45% of cases. Comorbidities such as central nervous system (CNS) diseases (40%) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) (36%) were prevalent. The average length of stay in the ED before admission was 35.3 h.

Conclusion

This study provides insights into the demographics, clinical characteristics, and outcomes of patients admitted with headaches in the ED. The equal gender distribution and age distribution align with findings from other studies. The high utilization rate of CT scans suggests diagnostic uncertainty among emergency physicians. These findings contribute to the understanding of headache presentations in the ED and serve as a foundation for future research.

Ultrasonographic measurement of the optic nerve sheath in the differential diagnosis and follow-up of migraine with and without aura: A pilot study

OBJECTIVE

Headache continues to be a common cause of emergency admissions. At first glance, primary headaches may not be distinguished from secondary headaches. This study aimed to evaluate the use of ultrasonic measurement of optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) in the clinical diagnosis of migraine patients during attack and during periods without attacks.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

This prospective study was conducted at the emergency department and neurology outpatient clinic of a tertiary hospital between October 2019 and January 2020. Patients diagnosed with episodic migraine and between ages 18-60 were included in the study. Migraine diagnosis and classification were based on criteria from the 2018 International Classification of Headache Disorders. ONSD measurement was performed with ultrasonography. ONSD measurements of the same migraine patients during attack and attack-free periods were compared with measurements of healthy volunteers.

RESULTS

A total of 82 participants consisting of 42 migraine patients and 40 control subjects were evaluated. In the control group, mean ONSD of the right eye was 4.88 ± 0.31 mm and mean ONSD of the left eye was 4.86 ± 0.31 mm. Mean ONSD measurement of the left eye was 4.80 ± 0.36 mm and mean ONSD of the right eye was 4.82 ± 0.37 during the attack period of the migraine patients. There was no significant difference between the migraine patients and the control group according to right and left eye ONSD measurements (attack-free period: p = 0.200, p = 0.448; attack period: p = 0.338, p = 0.660, respectively). There was no significant difference between ONSD measurements during the attack period and attack-free period in migraine patients (right eye p = 0.32; left eye p = 0.532).

CONCLUSION

The results of our study indicate that ONSD measurements may provide clinical insight into differential diagnosis preceding neuroimaging in migraine patients. On the other hand, since our study is the first on this topic, it should be noted that further studies are needed to come to a conclusion.

Nontraumatic Headache in Adult Emergency Patients: Prevalence, Etiologies, and Radiological Findings

The aim of this study was to measure prevalence, to describe underlying etiologies, and to assess radiological findings, focusing on significant intracranial abnormality (sICA). This was a prospective study of unselected adult patients admitted to the emergency department (ED) in a tertiary care hospital where all presenters were systematically interviewed about their symptoms. We attributed nontraumatic headache with neuroimaging to four groups: Normal or no new finding, extracranial abnormality, insignificant intracranial abnormality, or significant intracranial abnormality. sICA was defined as “needing acute therapy”, “needing follow-up neuroimaging”, or “clinically important neurological disorder”. Among 11,269 screened ED presentations, the prevalence of nontraumatic headache was 10.1% (1132 patients). Neuroimaging (cCT and/or cMRI) was performed in 303 patients. Seventy (23.1% of scanned; 6.2% of all headache patients) patients had sICA. Etiologies were cerebrovascular disease (56%), intracranial bleeding (17%), tumors (14%), infection (9%), and others (6%). Short-term outcome was excellent, with 99.3% in-hospital survival in patients with and 99.4% in patients without neuroimaging, and 97.1% in sICA; 1-year survival in outpatients with neuroimaging was 99.2%, 99.0% in outpatients without, and 88.6% in patients with sICA. Factors associated with sICA were age, emergency severity index (ESI) of 1 or 2, Glasgow coma score (GCS) under 14, focal neurological signs, and a history of malignancy. Prevalence of headache and incidence of sICA were high, but survival after work-up for nontraumatic headache was excellent in the 94% patients without sICA. Due to the incidence of sICA, extensive indication for neuroimaging in headache patients is further warranted, particularly in patients with risk factors.

Clinical predictors of significant intracranial computed tomography scan findings in adults experiencing headache disorder

Introduction

Radiological assessments for adult headache disorder show significant intracranial findings in 2.5% to 10% of performed computed tomography scans (CT-scans), leading to an overuse consideration for CT-scan requests by physicians in headache-experiencing patients. Therefore, we undertook this study in order to determine predictors of significant intracranial CT-scan findings in adults experiencing headache disorder; in order to help physicians better select patients who need imaging, which would subsequently decrease the costs of headache disorder management and the useless irradiation rates.

Methods

We carried out a cross-sectional study in the medical imaging departments of Yaounde Central Hospital and Douala Laquintinie Hospital, which are two teaching hospitals in Cameroon, over a period of five months. We consecutively and non-exhaustively included all consenting patients aged eighteen years and above, referred to the radiology department to perform a head CT-scan as aetiological workup of headache disorder, from either a traumatic or non-traumatic mechanism. Patients having a known brain lesion and those with a Glasgow coma scale less than thirteen were excluded. The clinical history of patients was taken and a complete physical examination was performed. Demographic data, clinical characteristics of the headache, results of neurological and physical examinations were collected and correlated to the results of head CT-scan.

Results

We enrolled 169 patients in the study, 56.2% were males, with a sex ratio of 1.3; sudden onset of headache increased by two the risk of discovering significant intracranial pathology (p = 0.032). Occipital and cervical location of headache, headache evolving by crisis, and recurrent paroxysmal headache were rather significantly correlated to no structural brain finding. An abnormal neurological examination with specifically abnormal stretch reflexes, aphasia, loss of consciousness, raised intracranial signs, weakness, and meningeal signs were predictive of structural intracranial pathology. Otorrhagia, epistaxis, and periorbital ecchymosis in addition were predictive in post-traumatic headaches.

Conclusion

Abnormal results from neurological examination are the best clinical parameters to predict structural intracranial pathology on CT-scan in adult patients experiencing headache disorder. In case of post-traumatic headaches, in addition, otorrhagia, epistaxis, and periorbital ecchymosis are too highly predictive.

Diagnostic Neuroimaging in Headache Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE

Neuroimaging in headache patients identifies clinically significant neurological abnormalities and plays an important role in excluding secondary headache diagnoses. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the existing guidelines and studies surrounding neuroimaging in headache patients.

METHODS

The research question involved determining the prevalence of detecting clinically significant neurological abnormalities using neuroimaging in patients suspected of primary headache. Searches of the PubMed and Embase databases were conducted on English-language studies published from 1991 to 2016, and the reference lists of the retrieved articles were also checked manually. All headache subtypes and patients aged ≥15 years were included in the analysis.

RESULTS

Ten studies met the selection criteria. The pooled prevalence of detecting clinically significant abnormalities in the neuroimaging of headache patients was 8.86% (95% confidence interval: 5.12-15.33%). Subsequently, diverse subgroup analyses were performed based on the detection method, headache type, study type, study region, age group, and disease type.

CONCLUSION

The present findings indicate that limited neuroimaging methods should be carefully considered for headache diagnostic purposes when there are red flag symptoms. Limitations and suggested directions for future studies on neuroimaging in headache patients are described.

The value of CT angiography in patients with acute severe headache

Patients with acute severe headache may have a secondary form of headache. Standard head computer tomography (CT) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination are often performed in the absence of neurological deficits to exclude subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Increasingly, patients undergo subsequent CT angiography (CTA) to exclude cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), dissection or reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS). It is unknown whether this additional imaging increases diagnostic yield. We aimed to evaluate the yield of CTA in patients with acute severe headache with normal neurological examination and no abnormalities at standard CT and CSF analysis. We included consecutive patients presenting to the emergency room between January 2008 and May 2011 with acute severe headache and without abnormalities at neurological examination, CT and CSF research, who received a CTA in the diagnostic process in our teaching hospital. All scans were rereviewed by an experienced neuroradiologist. We included 70 patients, 71% were women and average age was 45 years. We found a vascular abnormality in 13 (19%) of our patients. Four had either a prior aneurysm or CVT. Eight patients had an unruptured intracranial aneurysm (UIA) on CTA (11%), two had CVT (3%), two had RCVS (3%) and one had cerebral ischemia (1%). We found a high percentage of vascular abnormalities. A third of these patients had a prior episode of either an aneurysm or CVT. In patients with a history of UIA or CVT performing CTA despite normal CT and LP therefore seems warranted. A prospective study to delineate indications for CTA is needed.