Cephalalgia : an international journal of headache
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Hemiplegic migraine (HM) is a rare subtype of migraine with aura that includes transient hemiparesis of different degrees. The dominantly inherited type, called familial hemiplegic migraine, along with the sporadic type, in which no family history of similar attacks exists, have been recently recognized by the revised International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-2). Short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks with conjunctival injection and tearing (SUNCT) and short-lasting unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks with cranial autonomic symptoms (SUNA) are also very rare conditions that are classified as trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias. This report provides the first description of an association between HM and SUNCT/SUNA. ⋯ The coexistence of such rare primary headache disorders is probably due to a common underlining mechanism, with a sodium channelopathy being an attractive potential candidate.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Pain measurement: Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Verbal Rating Scale (VRS) in clinical trials with OTC analgesics in headache.
The aim was to assess the performance of the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) in patients recruited in a clinical trial with over the counter analgesics in headache. ⋯ This study shows that the VRS categories cannot be presented in an equidistant manner on the VAS, and that contrary to previous assumptions, the pain intensity descriptors are less clear and can have different meanings in different languages. Therefore, both in the 3rd edition of the International Headache Classification (ICHD-III) and in the guidelines for clinical trials of patients with headache illnesses, rather than a 4-grade VRS, a 6-grade or higher level VRS or a VAS should be recommended, with correspondingly broadly defined anchor points.