Pediatric Cluster Headache Beyond Diagnostic Criteria: A Case Series and Review of Treatment Response.
Joelle Mbakogu, Christina Szperka, Marissa Anto
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Case in brief
The report describes four children—three boys and one girl—diagnosed with cluster headache, a disorder characterized by brief, unilateral pain around the eye with autonomic symptoms. Pediatric presentations may lack typical features and resemble migraine, complicating diagnosis. One child did not meet all International Classification of Headache Disorders, Third edition criteria but had a positive response to cluster headache treatments. The abstract does not provide further clinical details or describe the outcomes for the other children.
What made this case unusual
One child was diagnosed despite not meeting all formal diagnostic criteria; the response to cluster headache treatments supported the diagnosis.
Diagnostic / clinical pearl
In children with headache resembling migraine, consider cluster headache even when the presentation does not fulfill every formal criterion; treatment response may support the diagnostic assessment.
Why it matters
The authors note that regarding cluster headache as an adult disorder can contribute to diagnostic delay in children.