Red Flag Symptoms
Certain features of the presentation may be regarded as ‘red flags’ and serve to expedite the management of patients with new-onset headache.
These are shown below:
| Red Flag Symptom | Possible Cause |
| Headache in a person of age >50 years | Mass lesion, temporal arteritis |
| ‘Thunderclap’ headache | SAH, pituitary apoplexy, haemorrhage into mass lesion or vascular malformation, posterior fossa mass lesion |
| Headaches increasing in severity and frequency | Mass lesion, subdural haematoma, medication overuse |
| Headache with fever, neck stiffness, or reduced level of consciousness | Meningitis, encephalitis, cerebral vasculitis |
| Focal neurological symptoms or signs | Mass lesion, vascular malformation, stroke |
| Papilloedema | Mass lesion, benign intra-cranial hypertension |
| Headache after trauma | Intra-cranial haemorrhage: subarachnoid, extradural, subdural, concussion |
Learning Bite
Mass lesions have the greatest variety of presentations – effectively mimicking almost all other causes of non-traumatic headache.