Cluster headache: a single tertiary center study

ABSTRACT

Object

The characteristics of cluster headache (CH) patients in many countries and the diagnostic and therapeutic approach have been described in several publications, but so far no clinical data have been published from Turkey.

Material methods

This is a cross-sectional retrospective study that includes all patients who were diagnosed with CH and referred to our headache clinic, Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Medicine, Neurology Department from 1991 to January 2018.

Results

We included 114 patients (24 females and 90 males) in our study. The mean age at onset was 31.68 ± 12.72 (range 13–68). Eighty-six (78.18%) patients had episodic cluster headache (ECH) and 24 (21.82%) patients had chronic cluster headache (CCH). The age at onset was significantly higher in the patients with CCH than with ECH (p = 0.002). The most common location was orbitotemporal for both genders. The most common accompanying symptoms were lacrimation (80.73%). The male:female ratio in all patients was 3:7, 3.8:1 in those with CCH and 4:1 in those with ECH. Eighty-nine (87.25%) patients had prophylactic treatment and 60 of them received verapamil.

Conclusion

In our study, some clinical features of our patients were similar to those of Europe and America or the Asian countries and some of them not. There are regional differences in cluster headache patients. With more awareness of cluster headache and research from many countries, clinical differences can be revealed more objectively in the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Headache
• autonomic symptoms
• clinic
• cluster headache
• diagnosis
• trigeminal autonomic cephalgia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contributions

All authors contributed the study.

Complementary informations:

Informed Consent: Written informed consent was obtained from who participated in this study.

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Zeynep Tuncer Issı, Nurcan Akbulut Vesile Öztürk. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Zeynep Tuncer Issı and co-author commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Additional information

Funding

The authors reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Zeynep Tuncer Issı

Zeynep Tuncer Issı She is 38 years old, neurologist and also pain physcian. She had second specialty after neurology education. She graduated Ankara Unıversity faculty of medicine. She is interested in interventional pain management, headache and cancer pain.

Nurcan Akbulut

Nurcan Akbulut, She is working as Neurologist and interested in Stroke, Headaches.

Vesile Öztürk

Vesile Öztürk, She is Professor at Dokuz Eylül University faculty of Medicine, Neurology Department. She is neurologist and pain specialist. She is also an author in cluster headaches and neurovasculer diseases in Turkey.