1. Stratification of risk for emergent intracranial abnormalities in children with headaches: a Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) study protocol.
- Author
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Tsze, Daniel, Kuppermann, Nathan, Casper, T, Barney, Bradley, Richer, Lawrence, Liberman, Danica, Okada, Pamela, Morris, Claudia, Myers, Sage, Soung, Jane, Mistry, Rakesh, Babcock, Lynn, Spencer, Sandra, Johnson, Michael, Klein, Eileen, Quayle, Kimberly, Steele, Dale, Cruz, Andrea, Rogers, Alexander, Thomas, Danny, Grupp-Phelan, Jacqueline, Johnson, Tiffani, and Dayan, Peter
- Subjects
accident & emergency medicine ,migraine ,paediatric A&E and ambulatory care ,Female ,Pregnancy ,Child ,Humans ,Prospective Studies ,Craniocerebral Trauma ,Emergency Service ,Hospital ,Emergency Treatment ,Headache - Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Headache is a common chief complaint of children presenting to emergency departments (EDs). Approximately 0.5%-1% will have emergent intracranial abnormalities (EIAs) such as brain tumours or strokes. However, more than one-third undergo emergent neuroimaging in the ED, resulting in a large number of children unnecessarily exposed to radiation. The overuse of neuroimaging in children with headaches in the ED is driven by clinician concern for life-threatening EIAs and lack of clarity regarding which clinical characteristics accurately identify children with EIAs. The study objective is to derive and internally validate a stratification model that accurately identifies the risk of EIA in children with headaches based on clinically sensible and reliable variables. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Prospective cohort study of 28 000 children with headaches presenting to any of 18 EDs in the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN). We include children aged 2-17 years with a chief complaint of headache. We exclude children with a clear non-intracranial alternative diagnosis, fever, neuroimaging within previous year, neurological or developmental condition such that patient history or physical examination may be unreliable, Glasgow Coma Scale score
- Published
- 2023