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. 2021 Aug 19:12:706074.
doi: 10.3389/fneur.2021.706074. eCollection 2021.

Headache Characteristics in the Neurological Emergency Department: A Retrospective Study

Florian Rimmele  1 , Josephine Janke  1 , Peter Kropp  2 , Annette Grossmann  3 , Till Hamann  1 , Uwe Walter  1 , Tim P Jürgens  1
Affiliations

Headache Characteristics in the Neurological Emergency Department: A Retrospective Study

Florian Rimmele et al. Front Neurol. .

Abstract

Background: The care of patients with headache in the emergency department (ED) represents a diagnostic and clinical challenge. Data on the prevalence and characteristics of headache patients in purely neurological EDs are sparse. The aim of the present study is to examine patient profiles with the cardinal symptom of headache in an academic neurological ED, to analyze correlations between headache characteristics and search for differences compared to the interdisciplinary ED. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study assessed all patients who presented to the ED of the Department of Neurology at Rostock University Medical Center between November 2013 and November 2016 with the main symptom of headache. Epidemiological, clinical, diagnostic data as well as key data regarding the care structure were recorded. Correlations between headache characteristics and diagnosis at discharge were analyzed and risk profiles were identified using binary logistic regression analysis. Conclusion: This study comprehensively characterized a large collective of patients with the cardinal symptom of headache presenting to a purely neurology emergency department.

Keywords: emergency department; headache; migraine; primary headache; secondary headache.

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Conflict of interest statement

FR served on advisory boards and/or as speaker for Allergan, Novartis, Teva, Ipsen. He has received royalties from Elsevier. PK served on advisory boards and/or as speaker for Allergan, Novartis, Teva and Lilly. UW has received speaker honoraria and travel funds from Ipsen Pharma, Merz Pharma, Allergan, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Daiichi Sankyo, Bayer Vital, Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer, and a research grant from Merz Pharma. He has received royalties from Thieme and Elsevier Press. He serves as editor of the European Journal of Ultrasound. TJ served on advisory boards and/or as speaker for Allergan, Autonomic Technologies, Desitin, Hormosan, Novartis, Lilly, Sanofi and Teva. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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