Deep brain stimulation for chronic refractory cluster headache: A case series about long‐term outcomes and connectivity analysis
Bibliographic record
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to provide long-term clinical results-including "sweet spot" identification and connectomic imaging analysis-in a series of patients treated with deep brain stimulation for refractory chronic cluster headache. BACKGROUND: Deep brain stimulation is a relatively recent indication for the treatment of refractory chronic cluster headache. This indication has generated substantial debate in recent years due to uncertainty surrounding the mechanism of action and the lack of long-term efficacy data. METHODS: Case retrospective series of adult patients diagnosed with refractory chronic cluster headache and treated with deep brain stimulation. Demographic and clinical data were registered preoperatively and at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. The primary endpoint was reduction in headache load, a composite score of frequency, severity, and duration of each attack. Imaging analyses (sweet spot and connectomic analyses) were performed to identify the brain regions most closely correlated with the reduction in headache load and to identify the structural networks involved. Treatment response was categorized according to the reduction in headache load, as follows: poor (<30% reduction), partial (30-50%), or high (>50%). RESULTS: A total of 14 patients were included, with a mean (standard deviation [SD]) age of 42.4 (10.7) years and mean (SD) headache duration of 8.0 (5.8) years. Headache load scores decreased significantly from baseline to Month 24: mean (SD) 424.2 (325.9) versus 135.9 (155.7) (p = 0.001). In most patients (eight patients [58.0%]), headache load scores decreased by 50% after treatment. The other six patients showed either a partial (three [21.0%]) or poor (three [21.0%]) response. The optimized sweet spot was the lateral ventral tegmental area ((Montreal Neurological Institute) MNI coordinates of the center of mass: x = ± 9.0 mm, y = -10.6 mm, z = -3.5 mm). The connectomic analysis pointed to the probable implication of corticorubral tracts. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that a substantial proportion of patients with refractory chronic cluster headache obtain significant long-term clinical benefits from deep brain stimulation. Good responders were characterized by a robust improvement in headache load within 3-6 months after surgery. The lateral ventral tegmental area was identified as the best target for this indication, with the likely participation of corticorubral tracts.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".