TITLE:
Acute headache in general neurology of China: Cause changes and predictors of short-term outcome
AUTHORS:
Guangsheng Wang, Yeting Zhou, Xiaodong Chen, Hongjian Wang, Tonghui Yang, Chunhong Chang, Yuanwei Wang, Hanpei Gu, Daoming Tong
KEYWORDS:
Acute Headache; Causes; Cerebrovescular Events; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage; Outcome
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of Neuroscience,
Vol.2 No.2,
May
29,
2012
ABSTRACT: Background: Although patients with acute headache frequently present in emergency department, the causes and predictors of short-term outcome in patients with acute headache in general neurology have not been adequately investigated. Methods: We prospectively reviewed the medical records of 130 hospitalized acute headache pa-tients in general neurology of China. Their initial CT scan was assessed, as was their lumbar puncture (LP) examination if performed. Results: The main cause of acute headache was acute secondary headache (80.8%), which was mainly attributable to acute cerebrovascular events (72.4%) followed by intracranial infection (19.0%). Among the 10.8% of patients who died during hospitalization most (85.7%) had subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Significant predictors of survival were severe headache versus thunderclap headache, meningismus, de-layed loss of consciousness, and hypertension (all p