BACKGROUNDOrganization and management of neurological emergencies differs among hospitals. Some have specialized neurological emergency rooms (ER).OBJECTIVESThe purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics, diagnosis and outcome of patients referred to a specialized emergency neurology clinic.DESIGNProspective, observational study of consecutive patients presenting between March 2014 and July 2014.SETTINGNeurologicaler of a training and research neuropsychiatric hospital.PATIENTS AND METHODSPatients older than 16 years of age with a neurological complaint were assessed by neurological exam, laboratory and imaging tests including brain computed tomography (CT), brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), cerebrospinal fluid analysis, electroencephalography or electromyography.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURESTypes of diagnosis.RESULTSOf 4500 patients, 2602 (57.8%) were female, and the mean age was 49.2 (23.6) years. The most common symptom was headache, which presented in 30.8% of all patients. The three most common diagnoses after emergency work-up were headache (27.8%), stroke (20.6%) and peripheral vertigo (13%). In the ER, CT was performed on 65.5% of patients and MRI on 66.9%. After emergency work-up, 72.2% patients were discharged home.CONCLUSIONSNeurological diseases are common, with headache and cerebrovascular diseases being the most frequent diagnosis in this specialized ER. CT and MRI are most often used to diagnose or exclude neurological diseases. Many patients do not require immediate hospitalization. The two most frequent diagnoses for hospitalization were stroke and demyelinating disease.LIMITATIONSAbsence of follow up data on patients discharged home.

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Serum uric acid (SUA), the end product of purine metabolism acts as an antioxidant and is related to oxidative stress. It has been reported that SUA may be involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer disease, Huntington disease, Parkinson disease, and multiple sclerosis. However, studies evaluating SUA levels in migraine are scarce. This study aimed to explore the relationship between pain characteristics and SUA levels in patients with migraine and compare SUA levels in migraine patients during a headache attack and headache-free period with those control groups. This prospective, cross-sectional study included 78 patients with migraine and 78 healthy subjects who were randomly selected from hospital personnel as the control group. Headache characteristics (duration of attack, pain intensity, and headache frequency) and sociodemographic features were recorded. The SUA level was measured once in the control group and twice in the migraine patients, during the migraine attack and headache-free periods. Although the SUA levels of the migraine group in the headache-free period were higher than those of the control group, the difference was not statistically significant. Gender was not significantly related to the change in SUA levels between the attack and headache-free period. When the correlation between age, duration of migraine, frequency, duration, and intensity of pain was evaluated; the difference between SUA levels in female migraine patients was weakly correlated with headache intensity, whereas male patients had a moderate correlation. ( P < .05; R > 0.250, and R > 0.516, respectively). The difference in SUA level in the migraine attack period compared to the headache-free period showing a positive correlation with pain intensity suggested that SUA may have a role in migraine due to its antioxidant role.

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Not every diffuse restriction observed on MRI indicates an ischemic stroke. Although radiologic images of the splenium may suggest acute ischemic infarction, the actual cause may be another pathology. Therefore, the symptoms and aetiologies of patients with splenium lesions should be considered and investigated from a wide range of perspectives.