“Pointing forehead”: a new physical sign in migraine

Abstract

This study was designed to compare the presence of seven clinical signs in a group of patients with migraine with that of patients with non-migraine headache. Migraine is sometimes misdiagnosed. Therefore additional features are useful to improve the diagnostic accuracy of migraine. A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted in a group of 709 outpatients with headache. The physical signs were named as A–G. These were carefully observed certain gestures exhibited by patients themselves when they describe their headache. Sign A (pointing right side of the forehead) and sign B (pointing left side of the forehead) were significantly higher in patients with migraine (Sign A positive—123/339, Chi-square—15.784, p < 0.001; Sign B positive—146/339, Chi-square—20.813, p < 0.001). Sign F (keeping the head on a table) was significantly higher in patients with non-migraine headache (Sign F positive—132/370, Chi-square—12.954, p < 0.001). Sign A was more commonly associated with unilateral, severe headache which lasted for a longer period of time. However sign B was more commonly associated with unilateral, severe headache only. Sign C was significant in patients who had bilateral headache in both migraine and non-migraine groups than unilateral headache. It is concluded that pointing right or left side of forehead when the patient describes his or her headache is a characteristic sign of migraine. Keeping the head on the table during an attack of headache is not a characteristic sign of migraine.