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Fever: a novelty among the symptoms accompanying migraine attacks in children
D Lendvai1, P Verdecchia, R Crenca
1Department of Pediatrics, University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.
Insights
This study analyzed 1787 children with headaches, finding primary headache common. Fever accompanied migraine in 9% of cases, suggesting potential links to neurotransmitter disregulation.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Neurology
- Clinical Medicine
Background:
- Headache is a frequent syndrome in early childhood.
- Understanding the etiopathogenesis of pediatric headache is crucial for accurate diagnosis and management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the clinical characteristics of headaches in a pediatric population.
- To investigate the prevalence and associated symptoms of primary headache in children.
- To explore the occurrence of fever in conjunction with migraine.
Main Methods:
- A retrospective analysis of 1787 children (aged 3-14 years) diagnosed with headache.
- Detailed anamnesis, physical examinations, and diagnostic tests including blood work, urinalysis, imaging (X-rays, scans), and vision tests.
- Symptom documentation, focusing on associated features like photophobia, pallor, nausea, vomiting, movement intolerance, and fever.
Main Results:
- 1724 children (96.5%) were diagnosed with primary headache.
- Common accompanying symptoms included phonophobia/photophobia (47%), pallor (43%), nausea (41%), movement intolerance (40%), and vomiting (31%).
- Fever was present in 156 children (9%) with migraine.
Conclusions:
- Primary headache is highly prevalent in the studied pediatric cohort.
- Fever associated with migraine in children warrants further investigation.
- Current hypotheses suggest neurotransmitter disregulation (serotonin, catecholamines, prostaglandins) underlies headache mechanisms.
Abstract:
Our casistic of 1787 children with headache, is made up of 943 males (53%) and 844 females (47%) aged 3-14 years. 1724 had primary headache. To make a precise diagnosis of primary headache, all the children have been subjected to a rigorous anamnesis, physical and diagnostic examination (blood, urine test, head x-rays-scans, sight test with cat's eyes). Symptoms that frequently accompany headache are: phono-photophobia, (47%), pallor (43%) nausea (41%) vomit (31%) intolerance to movement (40%) and fever (9%). We especially focused on fever which presented together with migraine in 156 (9%) of the 1724 subjects examined. Headache is an important syndrome and frequent in early childhood. Actually the hypothesis used to explain the etiopathogenetic mechanism is based on a disregulation of the neurotransmitters like serotonin, catecholamine and the prostaglandins.