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        New Message Board Archives >> 2004 Cluster Headache Specific Posts >> "Cluster Headache Mimics"--useful article
        
(Message started by: Bob_Johnson on Jul 30^th, 2004, 2:04pm)

Title: "Cluster Headache Mimics"--useful article
Post by Bob_Johnson on Jul 30^th, 2004, 2:04pm

This is an important article to obtain and take to your doctor if you are having a difficult time getting a diagnosis of the type of headache problem you have and/or finding medications which give consistent relief for cluster. It is a technically difficult read for someone not educated in medicine. Its value is in providing case studies about uncommon conditions which appear to be cluster headache but which are, in fact, not.

Broad signs which may signal that the problem being treated is a cluster mimic are: having made a diagnosis of cluster, the standard medications do not work OR they work for an episode or two and then stop being effective. Second, if the diagnostic signs differ in important ways from the standard signs for cluster (and this is a subtle issue which requires a physician with sophistication).

One of the striking findings reported: Cluster can arise from head trauma as long as 30-years after the trauma!

Some conditions which can mimic primary cluster headache:

Infections
Aspergillus
Inflammatory disorders
Wegener's granulomatosis
Orbital myositis
Plasmacytoma
Multiple sclerosis
Head trauma
Vascular abnormalities
Arterial dissections
Arteriovenous malformations
Neoplasms
Pituitary tumors
Metastases
Other trigeminal autonomic cephalgias: SUNCT syndrome; Paroxysmal hemacrania; Hypnic headache

"Cluster Headache Mimics", Dale M. Carter, M.D.. CURRENT PAIN AND HEADACHE REPORTS, 2004, 8:133-139.