Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Aug;124(4):1357-1361.
doi: 10.1007/s13760-024-02588-9. Epub 2024 Jun 15.

Could headache in children be a biomarker for dyslipidemia?

Rojan İpek  1 , Celal Varan  2 , Fedli Emre Kılıç  3 , Müsemma Alagöz Karabel  4 , Habip Almiş  5
Affiliations

Could headache in children be a biomarker for dyslipidemia?

Rojan İpek et al. Acta Neurol Belg. 2024 Aug.

Abstract

Aim: Here we present the patients whose body mass index is in the normal range and who visited with the complaint of headache. The differences in lipid profile in this group compared to healthy children and the risk factors that may be associated with this were investigated.

Materials and methods: 195 patients who applied to the Pediatric Neurology outpatient clinic with headache complaints between April 2021 and October 2022 were retrospectively examined. 201 healthy children were included as the control group. The gender, age, headache type, lipid profile blood test after at least 8 h of fasting [total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), triglyceride (TG), and TG/HDL ratio], and body mass index (BMI) were recorded. Those patients who had a BMI range of 18.5-24.9 kg/m2 were included in the study.

Results: The study group had 195 patients; 118 girls (60.5%). The average age was 12,57 ± 3,48 years, and 114 patients (58.5%) had tension-type headaches and 81 (41.5%) had migraine-type headaches. There was no significant difference in age and gender between the two groups. Blood pressure, folate, and thyroid function tests were normal. In the lipid profile, a significant difference was observed between total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and TG in the study group compared to the control group (p < 0.05). However, there was no difference in the TG/HDL ratio between those two groups. No significant statistical difference was observed in the lipid profile and other laboratory findings between headache types.

Conclusion: In children presenting with headache complaints, which can be both worrying for families and cause significant loss of functionality, it is detectable (obviously) that headache is an important marker for dyslipidemia; even if BMI is in a normal range. The lipid profile should be seen both to control the complaint with an appropriate diet and to observe the risk of future atherosclerotic processes.

Keywords: Child; Cholesterol; HDL; Headache; LDL.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Bonthius DJ, Hershey AD (2022) Headache in children: approach to evaluation and general management strategies. In: Blake D. (ed). (Up To Date)
    1. Villalon CM, Centurion D, Valdivia LF, de Vries P, Saxena PR (2003) Migraine: pathophysiology, pharmacology, treatment and future trends. Curr Vasc Pharmacol 1:71–84 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sordyl J, Kopyta I, Sarecka-Hujar B, Matusik P, Francuz T, Malecka TE (2022) Selected factors of vascular changes: the potential pathological processes underlying primary headaches in children. Children (Basel) 9(11):1660 - PubMed
    1. Zarate A, Manuel-Apolinar L, Saucedo R, Hernández-Valencia M, Basurto L (2016) Hypercholesterolemia as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease: current controversial therapeutic management. Arch Med Res 47:491–495 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nelson KB, Richardson AK, He J, Lateef TM, Khoromi S, Merikangas KR (2010) Headache and biomarkers predictive of vascular disease in a representative sample of US children. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 164:358–362 - DOI - PubMed - PMC

LinkOut - more resources