Cardiac cephalalgia. Case report and review of the literature with new ICHD-II criteria revisited

Abstract

We report a patient with cardiac cephalalgia and review reported cases from the English-language literature based on the new diagnostic criteria published in the International Classification of Headache Disorders, ed 2. Twenty-two patients, including ours, with headaches of cardiac origin were reviewed. The cases fit three of the four new criteria well: Criteria B (acute myocardial ischemia has occurred, 100%), C (headache developed concomitantly with acute myocardial ischemia, 100%), and D (headache resolved and does not recur after effective medical or surgical treatment for myocardial ischemia, 83%). The cases in which we had exceptions were to the proposed headache features (criterion A), which were generally not fulfilled, with nausea as the least frequent finding (27%); this criterion might not be mandatory for diagnosis.