Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content

Is headache during pregnancy a higher risk for serious secondary headache cause? A HEAD study report

  • the HEAD Study and HEAD Colombia Investigators
  • , Anne Maree Kelly*
  • , Kevin H. Chu
  • , Win Sen Kuan
  • , Gerben Keijzers
  • , Frances B. Kinnear
  • , Alejandro Cardozo-Ocampo
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Objectives: 

Pregnancy is defined as a ‘red flag’ in headache assessment. We aimed to describe the prevalence and causes of serious secondary headache in pregnant ED patients. 

Methods: 

Unplanned secondary analysis of HEAD Study/HEAD Colombia data. 

Results: 

3.2% (117/3643) of ED headache patients aged 18–50 years were pregnant, of whom six (5.1%) had a serious secondary cause identified. The proportion of patients with serious headache causes was not significantly different between pregnant female, non-pregnant female and male patient subgroups (P = 0.89). 

Conclusion:

Inclusion of pregnancy as a ‘red flag’ in ED headache assessment is not supported by these data.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)629-631
Number of pages3
JournalEMA - Emergency Medicine Australasia
Volume34
Issue number4
Early online date26 May 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2022

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Is headache during pregnancy a higher risk for serious secondary headache cause? A HEAD study report'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this