Abstract:

Objective: Headache is one of the most common complaints in general pediatric outpatient clinics. We aimed to investigate the complete blood count (CBC) parameters and serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], ferritin, vitamin B12 and folic acid in children and adolescents with primary headaches. Materials and Methods: In this study, 149 patients with primary headache [migraine, tension-type headaches (TTH) and unclassified headache] and 104 healthy controls, aged 5 to 18 years, were evaluated retrospectively. Age, gender, physical examination findings and laboratory parameters [CBC, 25(OH)D, vitamin B12, folic acid and ferritin] were also recorded for both groups. Results: The headache types in the primary headache group were TTH (48.1%), migraine (28.2%) and unclassified headache (23.7%). The primary headache group had lower median levels of ferritin and serum vitamin B12 than healthy controls (p=0.028 and p=0.014, respectively). The neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was significantly higher in the primary headache group (p=0.033). A binary logistic regression analysis model showed low ferritin levels as an independent risk factor for primary headaches (odds ratio =1.018, 95% confidence interval =1.003-1.032). Conclusion: The study results demonstrated lower serum vitamin B12 and ferritin and a higher NLR in children with primary headaches when compared to healthy children. We suggest that these findings require support from larger prospective studies.

Keywords: