Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0018681 (headache)
 56,091 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Sudden onset headache is a common condition that sometimes indicates a life-threatening subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) but is mostly harmless. We have performed a prospective study of 137 consecutive patients with this kind of headache (thunderclap headache=TCH). The examination included a CT scan, CSF examination and follow-up of patients with no SAH during the period between 2 days and 12 months after the headache attack. The incidence was 43 per 100 000 inhabitants >18 years of age per year; 11.3% of the patients with TCH had SAH. Findings in other patients indicated cerebral infarction (five), intracerebral haematoma (three), aseptic meningitis (four), cerebral oedema (one) and sinus thrombosis (one). Thus no specific finding indicating the underlying cause of the TCH attack was found in the majority of the patients. A slightly increased prevalence of migraine was found in the non-SAH patients (28%). The attacks occurred in 11 cases (8%) during sexual activity and two of these had an SAH. Nausea, neck stiffness, occipital location and impaired consciousness were significantly more frequent with SAH but did not occur in all cases. Location in the temporal region and pressing headache quality were the only features that were more common in non-SAH patients. Recurrent attacks of TCH occurred in 24% of the non-SAH patients. No SAH occurred later in this group, nor in any of the other patients. It was concluded that attacks caused by a SAH cannot be distinguished from non-SAH attacks on clinical grounds. It is important that patients with their first TCH attack are investigated with CT and CSF examination to exclude SAH, meningitis or cerebral infarction. The results from this and previous studies indicate that it is not necessary to perform angiography in patients with a TCH attack, provided that no symptoms or signs indicate a possible brain lesion and a CT scan and CSF examination have not indicated SAH.
Cephalalgia 2002 Jun
PMID:Sudden onset headache: a prospective study of features, incidence and causes. 1211 Jan 11

A 59-year-old Asian woman suffered from a TCH followed by sudden, binocular blurred vision, mimicking pituitary apoplexy. The diagnostic workup (including fluorescein angiography, MRI of the brain, and CSF analysis) showed severe optic disc swelling and dye leakage of multiple faint hyperfluorescent spots at retinal pigment epithelium level, diffuse pachymeningeal hypertrophy, and monocytic pleocytosis, respectively. VKH disease should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with a TCH followed by sudden, bilateral decreased visual acuity.
Headache 2008 Jan
PMID:Thunderclap headache as initial manifestation of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease. 1786 57