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The most important signs of danger of a headache patient include exceptionally intense or acute headache, transient loss or progressive impairment of consciousness, and neurological deficit symptoms. These patients are referred to an urgent assessment by a physician. Computed tomography scanning of the head is carried out in the case of suspected hemorrhage of a headache patient. Routine diagnosis employing cerebrospinal fluid analysis can be abandoned when excluding subarachnoid hemorrhage in a patient with headache symptoms, if blood is with certainty not observed in the CT scan of the head and no more than six hours have passed after the onset of the symptom. If subarachnoid hemorrhage is detected, cerebral CT angiography will be performed at the same time and a neurosurgeon consulted about the need of operative treatment.

In 2010, a quarter of direct healthcare cost in Europe were spent on brain diseases. The importance of preventing and treating brain diseases and maintaining of functional capacity of the brain will increase in our society with ageing population and with increasing cognitive requirements of modern working life. Public funding of basic and clinical neuroscience has, however, frozen to levels achieved years ago, clinical research of brain diseases being at a particular risk. Research projects directed to prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of brain diseases will pay off, also when assessed by economic measures.

Intravenous thrombolytic treatment of ischemic stroke is the central treatment option in patients presenting with acute stroke symptoms. The thrombolytic treatment chain is initiated in the emergency services call center immediately after stroke is suspected. Even one point on the FAST scale mandates urgent transport for assessment of thrombolytic treatment. The FAST test identifies eight out of ten strokes, and the stroke diagnosis is confirmed in the emergency department with immediate imaging. The most significant groups of differential diagnosis include epileptic seizures, migraine, incoherence associated with infection, syncope and psychiatric states. There is every reason to hasten the confirmation of diagnosis and implementation of treatment at all stages of the treatment chain.

Acute basilar artery occlusion is a neurological emergency that almost invariably leads to death or severe disability if not recanalized. Therapeutic recanalization is attempted using thrombolytic therapy either intravenously alone or by bridging it to on-demand, endovascular procedures. Due to often demanding differential diagnosis, angiographic evidence of basilar artery occlusion is necessary before treatment decisions. The etiology is often cardioembolism or vertebrobasilar thromboembolism due to atherothrombotic disease, or vertebral artery dissection in less than one in ten cases. Different therapeutic approaches have not been compared in randomized controlled trials. The selection of recanalization therapies thus builds on empirical knowledge and availability of vascular interventional services in the local setting.

Migraine aura is almost always a visual disturbance involving "positive" (rippling, stars) and "negative" (visual field defect) phenomena. It expands and gradually vanishes within 5 to 60 minutes. Evolution of symptoms and positivity are typical for migraine. TIA appears more abruptly and is usually of shorter duration. Negativity is typical for it, i.e. part of the visual field, speech, eye movement, ability to swallow, sensation or muscle strength disappear without the above mentioned features of migraine. In migraine, aura is usually followed by headache, whereas in TIA headache is less frequent.

A TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack) is a sudden onset transient cerebral or retinal ischemic symptom. The definition of TIA has evolved from a time-based (< 24 hours) towards tissue-based. This requires brain scanning either with a computer tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. The benefit of urgent etiological work-up and immediate start of secondary preventive medications has been shown in two independent open studies, in which eight out of ten ischemic strokes could be prevented after a TIA. The risk of ischemic stroke is highest in the two days following a TIA. This puts a huge demand on both the patients and their doctors in the recognition of a TIA. The patient needs to be referred on an emergency basis to a specialized centre with adequate investigational facilities.

The routine diagnostic tool of acute ischemic stroke is noncontrast computed tomography (CT). Modern multi-slice CT scanners permit also functional imaging with brain perfusion and CT angiography. Wider adoption of thrombolytic therapy in acute stroke have advanced their application. CTP is fast and widely available. It allows verification of cerebral ischemia, and may potentially assist in determining the extent of the ischemic tissue that still is salvageable with thrombolytic therapy. Major cerebral arteries can also be visualized to detect occlusions or stenosis, which also assists in clinical decision making. Noncontrast CT still remains the mainstay of acute stroke imaging.

Subarachnoid hemorrhage typically starts abruptly with an intense ("thunderclap") headache but sometimes the symptoms are atypical. The mortality is approximately 50%. Correct immediate diagnosis is important because the hemorrhage is usually caused by a treatable aneurysm. Computer tomography (CT) is the principal diagnostic method on arrival to the emergency room. If the CT is negative and the situation remains unclear, examination of the cerebrospinal fluid is essential and should entail analysis of heme pigments, especially in warning leaks and after delayed admission. Only spectrophotometry of the sample is sensitive enough and should replace visual inspection.