Thanks to Dr Szechi Freidanck for her presentation.

 

brainpain

 

Take home points:

1. The quality of a systematic review is determined by the relative quality of the included and excluded studies. The AMSTAR tool is a way to assess the methodological rigor of the systematic review
2. A Likelihood ratio of close to 1 means a test is not practically useful
3. Aim to rapidly assess headaches to facilitate CT brain early where possible; but beware of diagnostic momentum – the history is king in cases of headache, and poor initial assessments can have downstream effects for the patient