Cephalalgia : an international journal of headache
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Case Reports
Primary red ear syndrome associated with cochleo-vestibular symptomatology: a paediatric case report.
Red ear syndrome (RES), first described by Lance in 1996 in an adult series, may be primary or associated with headache syndromes, upper cervical disorders or vascular anomalies. Clinically the disease is characterised by recurrent episodes of reddening and burning pain in the auricle, usually elicited by different triggers. The prevalence of RES in the paediatric age group remains poorly understood. Several therapeutic approaches have been tried with heterogeneous clinical response. ⋯ The temporal and spatial association could suggest shared pathogenetic features between neurological (cochleo-vestibular) and vascular (red and burning ear) symptomatology, likely related to trigeminal autonomic reflex activation, although further studies are required for full comprehension of RES pathogenesis.
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The purpose of our study was to evaluate the effect of atrial septal defect (ASD) closure on migraine headache attacks (MHA). ⋯ These results indicate that Amplatzer device implantation can act as a permanent trigger of MHA in not a few patients, and that age may be an important predictive factor of the influence of ASD closure on MHA.
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Craniomandibular disorders (CMD) are widespread, but we know little about the cerebral representations associated with this pain syndrome and nothing about changes in cerebral representations of occlusion induced by common therapy approaches. ⋯ Our findings highlight the impact of the anterior insula for the internal monitoring and the anticipation of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain. In addition, an increase of symmetry of condylar movements after therapy has been associated with a decrease of activation magnitude in primary motor and cerebellar regions.
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Neurostimulation has emerged as a viable treatment for intractable chronic cluster headache. Several therapeutic strategies are being investigated including stimulation of the hypothalamus, occipital nerves and sphenopalatine ganglion. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the rationale, methods and progress for each of these. ⋯ The rationale behind these therapies is based on growing evidence from clinical, hormonal and neuroimaging studies. The overall results are encouraging, but unfortunately not all patients have benefited. All the mentioned therapies require weeks to months of stimulation for a prophylactic effect to occur, suggesting brain plasticity as a possible mechanism, and only stimulation of the sphenopalatine ganglion has demonstrated an acute, abortive effect. Predictors of effect for all modes of neurostimulation still need to be identified and in the future, the least invasive and most effective strategy must be preferred as first-line therapy for intractable chronic cluster headache.
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The response to indomethacin is an important feature for the diagnosis of hemicrania continua. ⋯ As shown in older studies, indomethacin can induce de novo headaches in a presumably dose-related fashion although the exact mechanism in uncertain. A treatable secondary origin of the indomethacin-induced headaches in patients with hemicrania continua or paroxysmal hemicrania (such as reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome or aseptic meningitis) should be considered and excluded by further diagnostic testing if headaches persist after discontinuation of indomethacin.