ArticleJournal of family medicine and primary care
Is there a misuse of computed tomography in the diagnostic workup of headache? A retrospective record-based study in secondary health-care facility in Saudi Arabia.
Article in Journal of family medicine and primary care. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Geographical variations and potential low-value neuroimaging examinations in Norway from 2013 to 2022.Research in health services & regions · 2025Article
- Diagnostic Yield of Neuroimaging for Headache in a Pediatric Emergency Department: A Single Tertiary Centre Experience.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Characterizing and quantifying low-value diagnostic imaging internationally: a scoping review.BMC medical imaging · 2022Article
- Nontraumatic headaches in the emergency department: identifying clinical associations and predictive warning signs of intracranial pathologies.Annals of Saudi medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionHeadache disorders are one of the most prevalent global public-health problems that require placing high demand on health-care Services. Since it is one of the most frequent complaints in clinical practice worldwide, it causes a considerable burden in terms of the social cost. The study aimed to give a guide for the decision on the utilization of computed tomography (CT) in the diagnostic workup and identify if patients require neurological imaging (CT) for proper diagnosis or not. MATERIALS AND
methodsThe study was carried out in the Radiology Department in King Khalid Hospital, Al Kharj, Saudi Arabia from October 15, 2016, to February 15, 2017. A retrospective record-based study conducted using the documented CT reports in the files of patients whom were referred to the radiology department complaining of any type of a headache.
resultsThe data included 210 patients 51% were males and 49% were females. The patients were distributed into age groups; the mean age was 38.46 standard deviation ± 13.56. Among Saudi population, the etiology of headache was varying; the most prevalent type of headache was tension headache 25.71% of the total headache patients followed by cluster 25.24% and the migraine with the lowest proportionality. The majority of the patients' headache pain was mild 60%. Moreover, the CT reports for most of the patients were normal. Spearman Correlation test was used to see if there is a significance in using the CT for any patient who comes with symptoms including headache, and the results have shown that there is no association and clinical significance in using the CT for patients with headache without suspecting other clinical condition (
conclusionHeadache disorders must be on the public-health agenda. Tension, migraine, and cluster-type headaches represent the majority of primary headaches. Statistically no significance or need to obtain CT if there are no life-threatening conditions expected or trauma presented.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.