Ep 161 Red Flag Headaches: General Approach and Cervical Artery Dissections

In this Part 1 or our two part podcast series on Red Flag Headaches we discuss a general approach, tips and tricks to assessing patients who present with headache followed by a deep dive into cervical artery dissections. With the help of Dr. Roy Baskind and Dr. Amit Shah we answers questions such as: what are the big 4 headache diagnoses that are not routinely picked up on plain CT or LP? Why are the symptoms of cervical artery dissection often fluctuating? Why do the symptoms of cervical artery dissection sometimes seem to not fit an anatomical distribution? What are the key clinical features that would trigger you to suspect cervical artery dissection? How do you decide which patients require a CT angiogram? What is the evidence for a causal relationship between chiropractic manipulation and cervical artery dissections?  What is evidence for antiplatelet agents, anticoagulants and thrombolysis in the management of cervical artery dissection? Which patients with cervical artery dissection can be safely discharged from the ED and many more...