Clinical profile of cluster headaches in China – a clinic-based study

Abstract

BackgroundThe clinical profile of cluster headache in Chinese patients have not been fully studied.MethodsThe classification and clinical features of 120 consecutive patients with cluster headache (105 males, 15 females; mean age, 34.9 ± 10.5 years) visiting at International Headache Center from May 2010 to August 2012 were analyzed.ResultsPatients came from 16 different regions of China. Mean age at onset of cluster headache was 26.7 ± 10.9 years. Only 13 patients (10.8%) had previously been diagnosed with cluster headache. Mean time to diagnosis from first symptoms was 8.2 ± 7.1 years (range, 0–35 years). Chronic cluster headache was observed in only 9 patients (7.5%). The most commonly reported location of cluster headache was temporal region (75.0%), followed by retro-orbital region (68.3%), forehead (32.5%), vertex (32.5%) and occipital (22.5%). Lacrimation was the most consistently reported autonomic feature (72.5%). During acute attacks, 60.0% of patients experienced nausea, and 41.7% experienced photophobia and 40.8% experienced phonophobia. In addition, 38.3% reported restless behavior and 45.8% reported that physical activity exacerbated the pain. None of patients experienced visual or other kinds of aura symptoms before cluster attacks. We found that 38.3% of patients had <1 cluster period and 35.8% for 1–2 cluster periods per year with these periods occurring less frequently during the summer than during other seasons. Cluster duration was 1–2 months in 32.5% of patients. During cluster periods, 73.3% of patients had 1–2 attacks per day, and 39.2% experienced cluster attacks ranging in duration from 1 h to less than 2 h. The duration of attacks were 1.5 (1–2.25) hours for males and 1.5 (1-3) for females respectively. The World Health Organization quality of life-8 questionnaire showed that cluster headache reduced life quality.ConclusionsCompared to Western patients, Chinese patients showed a relatively low prevalence of chronic cluster headaches, pain sites mainly focused on areas distributed by the first division of the trigeminal nerve, a low frequency of restlessness and absent aura. These clinical features may be more common in Eastern populations, including mainland Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese patients, than in Western patients.

Aura in Cluster Headache: A Cross‐Sectional Study

“…Typical aura was found in 7.0% of participants, which lies within the range of other studies, in which aura prevalence varied from 0 to 23% 2, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22…”

Headache and Alcohol

“…Cluster headache patients also often report that alcohol intake is able to trigger headache and cluster periods . In a Chinese population of cluster patients, about 56% of the patients reported that alcohol was a trigger for their headache . A German study of cluster headache found that 50% of the patients reported that alcohol triggered attacks, and 70% of these patients described that red wine was the triggering alcoholic beverage.…”

Differences of Cluster Headache on the Basis of Sex in the Korean Cluster Headache Registry

“…11 Despite the decreasing male to female ratio suggested in Western studies, reports in China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea still indicated high male predominance of CH in Asia. [13][14][15][16] However, studies investigating clinical features of CH in women are scarce in the Asian population. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe differences in clinical characteristics and demographic features between the sexes using data from the Korean Cluster Headache Registry (KCHR), which prospectively enrolled patients with CH.…”