• Stefan Macher, Wolfgang Marik, Nik Krajnc, Christoph Mitsch, Martin Michl, Nina Mueller, Klaus Novak, Sina Zaic, Christian Woeber, Berthold Pemp, and Gabriel Bsteh.
• Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, Vienna, 1090, Austria.
• J Headache Pain. 2024 May 6; 25 (1): 7070.

BackgroundRecently, diagnostic criteria including a standardized MRI criterion were presented to identify patients suffering from idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) proposing that IIH might be defined by two out of three objective findings (papilledema, ≥ 25 cm cerebrospinal fluid opening pressure (CSF-OP) and ≥ 3/4 neuroimaging signs).MethodsTo provide independent external validation, we retrospectively applied the proposed diagnostic criteria to our cohort of patients with clinical suspicion of IIH from the Vienna IIH database. Neuroimaging was reevaluated for IIH signs according to standardized definitions by a blinded expert neuroradiologist. We determined isolated diagnostic accuracy of the neuroimaging criterion (≥ 3/4 signs) as well as overall accuracy of the new proposed criteria.ResultsWe included patients with IIH (n = 102) and patients without IIH (no-IIH, n = 23). Baseline characteristics were balanced between IIH and no-IIH groups, but papilledema and CSF-OP were significantly higher in IIH. For the presence of ≥ 3/4 MRI signs, sensitivity was 39.2% and specificity was 91.3% with positive predictive value (PPV) of 95.2% and negative predictive value (NPV) 25.3%. Reclassifying our cohort according to the 2/3 IIH definition correctly identified 100% of patients without IIH, with definite IIH and suggested to have IIH without papilledema by Friedman criteria, respectively.ConclusionThe standardized neuroimaging criteria are easily applicable in clinical routine and provide moderate sensitivity and excellent specificity to identify patients with IIH. Defining IIH by 2/3 criteria significantly simplifies diagnosis without compromising accuracy.© 2024. The Author(s).

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