Clinical Considerations on Side-Locked Unilaterality in Long-Lasting Primary Headaches |
| |
| Authors: | Massimo Leone M.D. Domenico D'Amico M.D. Fabio Frediani M.D. Walter Torri M.D. ttar Sjaastad M.D. Ph.D. Gennaro Bussone M.D. |
| |
| Affiliation: | Headache Centre, Neurological Institute "C. Besta", Milan, Italy.; Servizio di Neurologia, "G. Fornaroli" Hospital, Magenta (MI), Italy.; Istituto di ricerche farmacologiche "M. Negri", Milan, Italy.; Department of Neurology, Trondheim University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway. |
| |
| Abstract: | SYNOPSIS
The relevance of side-locked unilateral pain (with no side shift) in diagnosing and differentiating primary long-lasting cephalglas such as tension headache and migraine is not clear, In the present study we have retrospectively examined the frequency of side-locked unilaterality in 1169 primary headache outpatients, whose pain duration was more than four hours. The cases were migraine (66%), tension-type headache (21%) and non-classifiable headache and atypical facial pain (not well defined headache) (13%). The occurrence of side-locked unilateral pain was more frequent in migraine (17%) than tension headache (4%). However side-locked pain was found to be more frequent in patients with not-well-defined head pain (28%). Of the 1169 patients, 181 (15%) had side-locked unilateral pain: 70% of the 181 had migraine, 25% were not-well-defined head pain cases and 5% were tension-type headache cases. The high percentage of migraine cases in the side-locked unilateral group reflects the high proportion of migraine patients in the studied population. |
| |
| Keywords: | migraine tension headache nonclassifiable headache side-locked unilateral headache cervicogenic headache |
|
|
