A CROSS SECTIONAL ANALYSIS OF PREVALENCE OF TRANSIENT FOCAL NEUROLOGICAL DEFICITS AND HEADACHE IN PREGNANCY

Objective:The study aspires to gauge the prevalence of headaches [migraine or otherwise] during the course of their pregnancy and to simultaneously estimatethe extent of transient focal neurological symptoms [self-reported] as well. Methodology: This Cross sectional study was conducted at Department of Gynecology & Obstetrics, Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad, from January 2017 to June 2017. The Hospital is serving both urban and rural areas of Hyderabad, to hundreds of patients. This study targeted those patients who came for antenatal visits, pregnancy related complaints and were in their 2nd trimester. Patients with neurological problems, space occupying lesions in brain, at risk pregnancies and pregnancies with known fetal complications were excluded from the study. A total of 1240 participants with age above 18 to 40 years meet the inclusion criteria and gave informed consent, was included in the study. Result: Out of 1240 participants, enrolled in the study, 44.11% [n=547] reported episodes of headache during their pregnancy while remaining 55.89% [n=693] answered in negative. While analyzing the types of headaches, participants suffered, i.e. 44.11% of total population, it is found out that 60.70% [n=332] were suffered with Non migrainous headaches while the remaining 39.30% [n=215] were having migrainous headache [according to themselves]. It was revealed that only 17.20% [n=37/215] of the participants reported having migraine, were actually having migraine. Conclusion A significant population during pregnancy experience episodes of headache. Most of the population consider headache as having migraine but relatively a very lesser fraction were having actual migraine. Although the presence of transient neurological deficits were seen less inpatients with or without non-migrainous headache, but they are common in patients with migraine. Key Words: Migraine in Pregnancy, Headache, Transient Focal Neurological Symptoms &Aura in Pregnancy