In the complicated headache group, transcranial ultrasound revealed 13 positive results. There were 6 children with brain tumours, 2 with hydrocephalus, 2 with herpes simple encephalitis, 2 with intracerebral haematoma, and one with an arachnoid cyst. MRI confirmed these findings.
Of the 410 patients in the isolated headache group who did not present intracranial lesions at neurologic visit, 9 patients (2.2%) were found with lesions. There were 5 children with brain tumours, 2 with hydrocephalus, one with intracerebral haematoma, and one with an arachnoid cyst. MRI confirmed these findings, and also discovered one extra case of tumour.
The remaining 400 patients presented with migraine (202 cases), tension headache (129 cases), chronic sinonasal infection (54), or were unclassified (15 children).
For neurologic examination, the sensitivity was 100% (13/13), the specificity was 97.6% (400/410), the false-negative rate was 43.5% (10/23), and the false-positive rate was 0% (0/400).
For transcranial ultrasound in the isolated headache group, the sensitivity was 75% (9/12), the specificity was 99.7% (397/398), the false-negative rate was 0.3% (1/398), and the false-positive rate was 25% (3/12).
For transcranial ultrasound in the complicated headache group, the sensitivity was 100% (13/13), the specificity was 0% (0/0), the false-negative rate was 0% (0/0), and the false-positive rate was 0% (0/13).
For transcranial ultrasound in the whole group of children, the sensitivity was 88% (22/25), the specificity was 99.7% (397/398), the false-negative rate was 0.3% (1/398), and the false-positive rate was 12% (3/25).