请简单介绍你自己,你各自的专业领域,以及文章的背景/前提。
我是伊斯坦布尔大学医学院神经病学系主任,这是我国最重要的医学院,在世界范围内得到广泛认可。我目前的H指数是31。我的研究活动主要集中在癫痫,脑电图,以及头痛。我也是同一诊所头痛中心的负责人,在头痛的各种主题上发表了40多篇论文。共同作者包括来自同一中心的年轻学术人员和来自我国其他城市的专注于头痛研究的世界著名教授,我们与他们合作开展了许多关于头痛的活动。
你能简要总结一下你的文章和它的发现/结论吗?
在这个研究(Uygun O。,Ertaş, M., Ekizoğlu, E. et al. Headache characteristics in COVID-19 pandemic-a survey study. J Headache Pain 21, 121 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1186/s10194-020-01188-1), we aimed to investigate the features which may be diagnostic for COVID-19-related headache in the clinical evaluation of headache patients and the effect of the pandemic itself on the course of primary headaches. For this purpose, we developed a detailed web-based questionnaire, and the participants were grouped according to being diagnosed with COVID-19 infection or not and having previous or new-onset headaches. Among a total of 3458 participants, 262 were diagnosed with COVID-19 infection and 126 (48.1%) were male, showing a significantly higher male gender ratio in comparison to participants without COVID-19. Interestingly, a worsening of previous primary headaches due to the pandemic-related problems was not reported in the majority of participants. COVID-19 related headaches showed various characteristics like pulsating, pressing, and even stabbing quality. We disclosed that having male gender, bilateral headache, duration over 72 h, and resistance to analgesics were likely to differentiate COVID-19 positive subjects from the negative ones. COVID-19 related headaches were also more closely associated with anosmia/ageusia and gastrointestinal complaints. Our study suggests that these headache-related features may be diagnostic for COVID-19 in the clinical evaluation of headache patients during the pandemic.
你文章的发现或结论对实践、研究、政策或公共卫生有什么影响?
与COVID-19相关的头痛应被视为具有不同特征的感染相关继发性头痛中的一个独立实体,值得特别关注。在大流行时期,早期诊断感染无疑对公共卫生至关重要。根据我们的研究结果,双侧、长期头痛、对镇痛药的耐药和男性,以及嗅觉丧失/年龄丧失和胃肠道不适,可能有助于在头痛患者的临床评估中诊断COVID-19。
您认为知识缺口还在哪里,未来这项研究面临哪些挑战?
在这个研究在美国,我们可以只包括能够使用新技术设备的个人,因此可能更年轻和受过教育的人可以回答这项调查。在参与者中,也可能有那些由于没有其他伴随症状而没有进行COVID-19检测的人。此外,我们可能不会调查与COVID-19预后不良相关的头痛特征,因为COVID-19严重患者可能无法参与调查。另一个知识缺口是,在感染COVID-19期间出现头痛的患者,疼痛的预后如何,以及疼痛是否会变成慢性疼痛。我们还不知道这种明显的特殊头痛是否会导致中枢敏化,反映为异位痛。
关于慢性头痛或疼痛病因学的研究有什么你认为特别令人兴奋的新进展吗?
与COVID-19相关的头痛的潜在机制尚未发现。头痛与嗅觉丧失/年龄丧失之间的密切关系可能为我们提供一些线索,并支持病毒直接侵入脑神经。为了支持适当设计的可比性转化研究,接受ICHD标准将指导研究者。这也将使大流行灾难成为一个机会,并提高我们有限的认识,以解开病毒引发头痛机制的奥秘。