TY - JOUR
T1 - When cervical pain is actually migraine
T2 - An observational study in 207 patients
AU - Viana, Michele
AU - Sances, Grazia
AU - Terrazzino, Salvatore
AU - Sprenger, Till
AU - Nappi, Giuseppe
AU - Tassorelli, Cristina
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, © International Headache Society 2016.
PY - 2018/2/1
Y1 - 2018/2/1
N2 - Introduction: A large proportion of migraine patients remain undiagnosed or misdiagnosed in Italy. In our experience, many migraineurs self-diagnose their condition as “cervical pain attack” or “cervical pain syndrome” (CP), assuming cervical spine pathology as the cause. We aimed to phenotype and classify the headache of patients with self-diagnosed CP, and to describe this sample of patients. Methods: Consecutive patients aged 18 to 75 years, referred to the Headache Center of the Mondino Institute (Pavia, Italy) for a first visit for headache, completed a questionnaire about CP and were subsequently examined by an experienced clinician. Results: Out of 207 patients, 132 (64%) believed they suffered from CP. According to ICHD-IIIβ criteria, these patients suffered from migraine or probable migraine in 91% of cases. The great majority of patients who believed that they suffered from CP underwent unnecessary medical exams (including radiation exposure in 40% of cases) and used treatments that were inadequate for their real diagnosis. Conclusion: The majority of patients with CP suffer from typical migraine. The misdiagnosis produces an economic burden (for patients and the health care system) and leads to impaired quality of life of patients.
AB - Introduction: A large proportion of migraine patients remain undiagnosed or misdiagnosed in Italy. In our experience, many migraineurs self-diagnose their condition as “cervical pain attack” or “cervical pain syndrome” (CP), assuming cervical spine pathology as the cause. We aimed to phenotype and classify the headache of patients with self-diagnosed CP, and to describe this sample of patients. Methods: Consecutive patients aged 18 to 75 years, referred to the Headache Center of the Mondino Institute (Pavia, Italy) for a first visit for headache, completed a questionnaire about CP and were subsequently examined by an experienced clinician. Results: Out of 207 patients, 132 (64%) believed they suffered from CP. According to ICHD-IIIβ criteria, these patients suffered from migraine or probable migraine in 91% of cases. The great majority of patients who believed that they suffered from CP underwent unnecessary medical exams (including radiation exposure in 40% of cases) and used treatments that were inadequate for their real diagnosis. Conclusion: The majority of patients with CP suffer from typical migraine. The misdiagnosis produces an economic burden (for patients and the health care system) and leads to impaired quality of life of patients.
KW - Migraine
KW - cervical pain
KW - cervical spine
KW - misdiagnosis
KW - self-diagnosing
KW - underdiagnosis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042295124&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0333102416683917
DO - 10.1177/0333102416683917
M3 - Article
SN - 0333-1024
VL - 38
SP - 383
EP - 388
JO - Cephalalgia
JF - Cephalalgia
IS - 2
ER -