THURSDAY, June 27, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Remote poststroke headache is common among pediatric stroke survivors, according to a study recently published in Neurology: Clinical Practice.
Ana B. Chelse, M.D., from Northwestern University in Chicago, and colleagues retrospectively studied 115 children (aged 30 days to 18 years) with a confirmed radiographic diagnosis of arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) at a single institution from 2008 through 2016. The association between poststroke headache and stroke recurrence was evaluated.
The researchers found that 36 percent of pediatric patients with confirmed AIS experienced poststroke headache at a median of 6 months after stroke. Just over half of patients with poststroke headache (51 percent) presented to the emergency department for headache evaluation, and 81 percent of these patients were admitted as an inpatient for headache. Development of poststroke headache was associated with older age at stroke (odds ratio [OR], 21.5; P = 0.0001) and arteriopathy (OR, 8.65; P = 0.0029) in a multivariable analysis. During the study period, 17 patients (15 percent) had a recurrent stroke. There was a possible association between poststroke headache and greater risk for stroke recurrence.
“Improved identification of children at risk for headache, early treatment and lifestyle modifications, may reduce morbidity and improve quality of life for survivors of childhood stroke,” write the authors.
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