Descriptive investigation of causes of thunderclap headache in patients at Imam-Reza Hospital in Kermanshah from 2009 to 2011

Headache is one of the most frequent causes of patient attendance in emergency rooms. One important type of headache is known as thunderclap headache which reaches its peak in approximately one minute. It has several different causes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the demographic and clinical characteristics and causes of this type of headache in the patients referring to Imam-Reza hospital in Kermanshah. In this descriptive analytic study، we reviewed the records of all the patients with thunderclap headache in Imam-Reza Hospital from April 2009 to April 2011. Demographic data، paraclinical investigations and final diagnoses were analyzed with SPSS software. This study included 48 patients، 28 female and 20 male patients with a mean age of 50. 7 years. The most common accompanying complaints were nausea and vomiting. Brain imaging was performed for all patients. The most frequent cause of headache was subarachnoid hemorrhage. Cerebral venous thrombosis and intracerebral hemorrhage were the next common causes. Our findings revealed that the most frequent cause of thunderclap headache in our study population was subarachnoid hemorrhage. The second most frequent cause was cerebral venous thrombosis، and the least frequent causes were idiopathic intracranial hypertension and tension headache. A significant percentage of the causes of thunderclap headache can be life-threatening.