Knowledge, Attitudes, and Management of General Practitioners of the Hospital Districts of Ouagadougou about Migraine (Burkina Faso)

Background. Migraine is a common neurological disorder characterized by severe headache attacks that may be debilitating. The objective of this study is to determine the knowledge and attitudes of general practitioners in the hospital districts of the city of Ouagadougou on migraine. Methods. This cross-sectional study was carried out in hospital districts of Ouagadougou. The data were collected during three months from February 1 to April 30, 2020. Results. The study included 116 general practitioners. Thirteen percent of them were suffering from migraine. All participants had previous experience with migraine diagnosis before the survey. Eighty percent of general practitioners had a good level of knowledge of ICDH-3 criteria (knowing 6-7 criteria). The most widely recognized IHS criteria were pulsatility quality (93.1%), photophobia or sonophobia (80.2%), and mild-to-moderate intensity (80%). Ninety-five (81.9%) general practitioners rarely ordered brain imaging. The most common acute treatments were nonsteroidal inflammatory drug (39.47%), paracetamol (44.74%), and derivate of ergot (3.95%). The most common preventive treatments were amitriptyline (27.8%), derivate of ergot (18.9%), and NSAID (16.7%). The majority of general practitioners (56.9%) have referred headache patients to a colleague or specialist. Conclusions. Our study found that diagnostic criteria and acute treatment of migraine were well known by the majority of general practitioners, in contrast of preventive treatment.

The ability of postgraduate students to diagnose and treat migraine and tension-type headache: A hospital-based survey.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of postgraduate medical students whether they can diagnose migraine and tension-type headache according to the International Headache Society criteria and whether they had an adequate clinical knowledge for the management of these headaches. Study Design: Cross Sectional Study. Setting: Departments of Neurology, PUMHS, Nawabshah and LUMHS, Jamshoro. Period: March and April 2018. Material & Methods: A questioner was designed outlining three options for the diagnosis of Migraine and Tension Type Headache (TTH) and the students were asked to pick the correct option which is based on the International Headache Society (IHS) criteria. In addition, a few more questions were incorporated relating to the management of these headaches, confidence in making the diagnosis, knowledge of most common type of headache, need for neuroimaging, presence of childhood migraine and the role of genes in causing migraine. Data was analyzed by using SPSS version 18. Results: A total of 73 postgraduate students responded to the questionnaire. Among them 21 were enrolled in MD and 52 were enrolled in FCPS training program. For migraine and TTH diagnostic criteria only 34% and 19% were able to pick the correct answers respectively. Although there answers were incorrect 65.8% students were confident about their diagnosis. Majority (58.9%) thought TTH as the most common headache and 11% thought migraine is the commonest. Most of the students 90.4% would go for neuroimaging in selected cases and the remaining 9.6%. Thought neuroimaging is indicated in every case of headache. In response to have you ever seen a child with migraine in 71% the response was NO. As far the question is there a role of genes in causing migraine 63% said YES while 37% thought there is NO role of genes in Migraine. Choice of drugs for acute and prophylactic treatment was also noted. Conclusion: The ability of postgraduate medical students to diagnose and treat migraine and tension-type headache was found to be less than satisfactory. There is a need for designing headache-specific CME programs for the postgraduate students so that their diagnostic and treatment abilities can be improved.

An Application of a Hybrid Intelligent System for Diagnosing Primary Headaches

(1) Background: Modern medicine generates a great deal of information that stored in medical databases. Simultaneously, extracting useful knowledge and making scientific decisions for diagnosis and treatment of diseases becomes increasingly necessary. Headache disorders are the most prevalent of all the neurological conditions. Headaches have not only medical but also great socioeconomic significance. The aim of this research is to develop an intelligent system for diagnosing primary headache disorders. (2) Methods: This research applied various mathematical, statistical and artificial intelligence techniques, among which the most important are: Calinski-Harabasz index, Analytical Hierarchy Process, and Weighted Fuzzy C-means Clustering Algorithm. These methods, techniques and methodologies are used to create a hybrid intelligent system for diagnosing primary headache disorders. The proposed intelligent diagnostic system is tested with original real-world data set with different metrics. (3) Results: First at all, nine of 20 attributes – features from International Headache Society (IHS) criteria are selected, and then only five most important attributes from IHS criteria are selected. The calculation result based on the Calinski–Harabasz index value (178) for the optimal number of clusters is three, and they present three classes of headaches: (i) migraine, (ii) tension-type headaches (TTHs), and (iii) other primary headaches (OPHs). The proposed hybrid intelligent system shows the following quality metrics: Accuracy 75%; Precision 67% for migraine, 74% for TTHs, 86% for OPHs, and Average Precision 77%; Recall 86% for migraine, 73% for TTHs, 67% for OPHs, Average Recall 75%; F1 score 75% for migraine, 74% for TTHs, 75% for OPHs, and Average F1 score 75%. (4) Conclusions: The hybrid intelligent system presents qualitative and respectable experimental results. The implementation of existing diagnostics systems and the development of new diagnostics systems in medicine is necessary in order to help physicians make quality diagnosis and decide the best treatments for the patients.

Do you really have sinus headache?

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Headache is a common symptom. Correct diagnosis of the etiology is the key to successful treatment. Chronic headache are misdiagnosed as sinus headache because of presence of overlapping symptoms leading to unnecessary treatment with no relief to the patient. We decided to undertake this study with the objective of evaluating patients with chronic headache for presence of chronic rhinosinusitis and hence assess the contribution of sinus headache to chronic headache.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> The present study was conducted at Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences, BG Nagara during the period January 2018 to December 2018. Patients presenting to OPD with chronic headache previously diagnosed as sinus headache were included in the study. A total of 174 patients were studied. All patients underwent detailed history taking, detailed ENT examination, and diagnostic nasal endoscopy. AAOHNS criteria for rhinosinusitis and IHS criteria for migraine and tension type headache were used for diagnosis. </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> We found that only 13% (n=23) cases had chronic rhinosinusitis and hence diagnosed as sinus headache. 53% (n=92) had migraine, 31% (n=54) had tension type headache and 3% (n=5) could not be categorized.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Prevalence of sinus headache in our study was found to be 13%. There are high chances of misdiagnosing chronic headache as sinus headache because primary forms of headache can present with nasal symptoms. The AAOHNS criteria for rhinosinusitis and IHS criteria for migraine and tension type headaches are very useful and effective in making an accurate diagnosis.</p>

Headache outcomes in children undergoing foramen magnum decompression for Chiari I malformation

ObjectiveA common symptom of Chiari I malformation (CIM) is headache, which is diagnosed using non-validated criteria from the International Headache Society (IHS). CIM-associated headaches should resolve following neurosurgical treatment of the malformation by foramen magnum decompression (FMD). We aimed to validate the IHS criteria and determine (1) the efficacy of FMD in treating headache and (2) whether duraplasty confers an advantage over simple bony decompression in the treatment of this symptom.MethodsA retrospective review of CIM cases treated with FMD at Great Ormond Street Hospital from 1989 to 2014 was carried out. Clinical headache characteristics were compared against IHS criteria and correlated with outcome following FMD.ResultsHeadache was a presenting symptom in 57/102 (55.9%) of patients. Of these, 42/57 (73.7%) could be classified as Chiari I-type headache. Following FMD, 42/57 (73.7%) of all presenting headaches showed a sustained improvement (>3 months) compared with 32/39 (82.1%) of Chiari I-type headaches. Duraplasty led to a sustained improvement in headache in 32/38 (84.2%) cases compared with 9/16 (56.3%) cases treated with bone-only decompression.ConclusionsOur data suggest that 80% of headaches classified as Chiari I-type will show a sustained improvement following FMD, and, as such, the IHS criteria are clinically useful in evaluating symptoms attributable to CIM. For all headaches associated with CIM, duraplasty may confer a benefit in terms of long-term improvement, compared with bone-only decompression.

Familial Aggregation of Migraine and Depression: Insights From a Large Australian Twin Sample

Objectives: This research examined the familial aggregation of migraine, depression, and their co-occurrence.Methods: Diagnoses of migraine and depression were determined in a sample of 5,319 Australian twins. Migraine was diagnosed by either self-report, the ID migraine™ Screener, or International Headache Society (IHS) criteria. Depression was defined by fulfilling either major depressive disorder (MDD) or minor depressive disorder (MiDD) based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) criteria. The relative risks (RR) for migraine and depression were estimated in co-twins of twin probands reporting migraine or depression to evaluate their familial aggregation and co-occurrence.Results: An increased RR of both migraine and depression in co-twins of probands with the same trait was observed, with significantly higher estimates within monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs compared to dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs. For cross-trait analysis, the RR for migraine in co-twins of probands reporting depression was 1.36 (95% CI: 1.24–1.48) in MZ pairs and 1.04 (95% CI: 0.95–1.14) in DZ pairs; and the RR for depression in co-twins of probands reporting migraine was 1.26 (95% CI: 1.14–1.38) in MZ pairs and 1.02 (95% CI: 0.94–1.11) in DZ pairs. The RR for strict IHS migraine in co-twins of probands reporting MDD was 2.23 (95% CI: 1.81–2.75) in MZ pairs and 1.55 (95% CI: 1.34–1.79) in DZ pairs; and the RR for MDD in co-twins of probands reporting IHS migraine was 1.35 (95% CI: 1.13–1.62) in MZ pairs and 1.06 (95% CI: 0.93–1.22) in DZ pairs.Conclusions: We observed significant evidence for a genetic contribution to familial aggregation of migraine and depression. Our findings suggest a bi-directional association between migraine and depression, with an increased risk for depression in relatives of probands reporting migraine, and vice versa. However, the observed risk for migraine in relatives of probands reporting depression was considerably higher than the reverse. These results add further support to previous studies suggesting that patients with comorbid migraine and depression are genetically more similar to patients with only depression than patients with only migraine.

Frequency of Migraine as a Chief Complaint in Otolaryngology Outpatient Practice

Objective.To identify the frequency of typical (headache and dizziness) and common atypical (ear fullness, pressure, pain, tinnitus, facial fullness, and nasal congestion) migraine symptoms as chief complaints among patients presenting to otolaryngology clinic.Methods.This is a descriptive study of prospectively collected data from a general otolaryngology practice. Typical migraine presentations were diagnosed by applying international headache society (IHS) criteria for migraine headache and Neuhauser’s criteria for migrainous vertigo. Atypical otologic and rhinologic migraine symptoms were diagnosed using individualized criteria. Charts were reviewed at 6-month interval from the first presentation.Results.Out of 1002 consecutive patients, 10.8% presented with “migrainous chief complaint.” All migrainous chief complaint patients had a history of headache but not all of them presented with headache. Corrected female to male ratio in the migraine group was 3 to 1; age distributions were significantly different between the migraine and nonmigraine groups by applyingt-test. Out of the atypical complaints, 86% of the patients had a history of concomitant typical presentation.Conclusion. Actual diagnostic criteria for migraine do not satisfy the diversity of its presentation. Investigating the history of migraine is enough to diagnose most atypical presentations. Sound knowledge about migraine seems essential for any ENT practitioner.

Prevalence of Chronic Headache in Croatia

Background. Chronic headache describes the presence of headache for >15 days per month on average for >3 months and fulfills the rest of the IHS criteria. The prevalence of chronic headache is within the range of 0.5–7.3% worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine the 1-year prevalence of chronic headache in adult Croatian population.Methods. The data were collected from a cross-sectional survey of an adult population (>18 years of age) sample. Randomly selected patients from the general population in four Croatian cities were asked to fulfill a self-completed questionnaire. The prevalence of chronic headache was calculated in the sample representing 3 383 769 Croatian adults.Results. The total sample included 1542 responders among which 616 were with headache. The 1-year prevalence of chronic headache was 2.4%, and 0.9% of responders declared having headache 30 days per month. According to these results, 81 192 adult inhabitants in Croatia suffer from chronic headache.Conclusions. The prevalence of chronic headache in Croatia is comparable to other countries worldwide. These patients require special attention and should be offered multidisciplinary medical support.

Audit of CT scanning of paranasal sinuses in patients referred with facial pain

Background: Computed tomography (CT) scans are performed by some clinicians in the belief that they are a useful primary investigation in patients with facial pain. Objective: To assess the appropriateness and outcome of sinuses CT scans in patients with facial pain based on the European Position Paper on Chronic Rhinosinusitis and Nasal Polyps (EPOS) 2007 guideline and International Headache Society (IHS) criteria for diagnosing and investigating rhinosinusitis. Methodology: The first cycle of audit was performed on 50 patients with facial pain who underwent CT scanning. The findings on nasal endoscopy, Lund-Mackay scores (LMS) of the scans and management of these patients were analysed. Following implementation of the IHS and EPOS criteria, 50 consecutive patients were re-audited. Results: In the first cycle, 16% of patients had positive nasal endoscopic findings. Thirty patients had LMS of 0 and only 9 showed significant changes (LMS ≥ 8) on their scans. In the second cycle, only 10 patients underwent CT imaging as per EPOS guideline and 4 of them showed significant changes. The remaining 80% of patients in this cycle were diagnosed and treated for non-sino- genic causes. Conclusion: Applying the IHS and EPOS criteria has reduced the number of inappropriate CT scans requests and allowed consideration of non-sinogenic aetiologies.