The prevalence of allodynia, osmophobia and red ear syndrome in the juvenile headache: preliminary data HEADACHE IN CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE

The aim of the study was to determine the frequency of clini- cal allodynia, osmophobia and red ear syndrome in a young popula- tion. Medical records of the chil- dren admitted for headache between 1 December 2004 and 31 March 2005 were consecutively studied. A questionnaire was used to find the prevalence of allodynia, osmopho- bia and red ear syndrome. We visit- ed 96 children with headache. The range of age was 6-18 years. We classified migraine in 57%, other primary headaches in 25% and sec- ondary headaches in about 18%. The presence of ipsilateral clinical allodynia was 14.5% in migraine, osmophobia in 20% of migraine and red ear syndrome in about 24% of migraine cases and they were absent in the other two headache groups. Our study shows that fea- tures like osmophobia, allodynia and red ear syndrome are not uncommon in migraine while they are absent in other types of headache.