Guidelines recommend imaging only headache patients with sinister features in the history or on examination. We prospectively collected data on imaging newly presenting patients to a UK headache service. CT and MRI results were classified as normal or showing an insignificant or significant abnormality. Over 5 years, 3,655 new patients (69% female; mean age 42.0 years) with headache disorders were seen. Five hundred thirty (14.5%) underwent imaging with large differences in the proportion referred by each consultant. There were more insignificant abnormalities on MRI (46%) than CT (28%). There were 11 significantly abnormal results (2.1% of those imaged). Significant abnormalities were found in patients diagnosed with migraine in 1.2% and in 0.9% of those with tension-type headache. Significant abnormalities in those suspected to have an intracranial abnormality occurred in 5.5%. This supports the practice of selecting patients with suspicious findings for imaging, rather than imaging all patients. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.
CITATION STYLE
Clarke, C. E., Edwards, J., Nicholl, D. J., & Sivaguru, A. (2010). Imaging results in a consecutive series of 530 new patients in the Birmingham Headache Service. Journal of Neurology, 257(8), 1274–1278. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-010-5506-7
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