Trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias presenting in a multidisciplinary tertiary orofacial pain clinic.

Orofacial pain may have a variety of causes and offers a significant clinical challenge for its diagnosis and management. OBJECTIVE: To assess the headache disorders presenting in a tertiary multidisciplinary orofacial pain clinic, after dental causes have been excluded. METHODS: Clinic letters from the initial consultation and subsequent follow up reviews of the 142 patients, who were seen in the tertiary Multidisciplinary Orofacial Pain clinic between January 2015 until January 2018 were reviewed as a clinical audit. RESULTS: The most common diagnoses were possible trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia (n = 62, 44%), migraine (n = 38, 27%) and painful post-traumatic trigeminal neuropathy (n = 17, 12%). The most common trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia diagnosis was hemicrania continua (n = 13, 9%), which is higher than the reported prevalence in neurology and headache clinics. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to diagnosing complex orofacial pain patients and the importance of awareness of primary headache disorders, in particular trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias, thereby reducing unnecessary diagnostic delays or procedures.

Complement activation product C4d in oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: Complement C4d-containing fragments have been proposed as diagnostic markers for lung cancer. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the presence of C4d in oropharyngeal (OPSCC) and oral (OSCC) squamous cell carcinomas. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: C4d staining was analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 244 OPSCC surgical specimens. C4d levels were quantified by ELISA in resting saliva samples from 48 patients with oral leukoplakia and 62 with OSCC. Plasma samples from 21 patients with leukoplakia and 30 with oral carcinoma were also studied. RESULTS: C4d staining in OPSCC specimens was associated with nodal invasion (P = 0.001), histopathologic grade (P = 0.014), disease stage (P = 0.040), and focal-adhesion kinase expression (P < 0.001). No association was found between C4d and prognosis. Saliva C4d levels were higher in patients with oral cancer than in subjects with leukoplakia (0.07 ± 0.07 vs 0.04 ± 0.03 µg ml(-1) , P = 0.003). The area under the ROC curve was 0.63 (95%CI: 0.55-0.71). Salivary C4d levels in stage IV patients were higher than in patients with earlier stages (P = 0.028) and correlated with tumor size (P = 0.045). Plasma C4d levels also correlated with salivary C4d levels (P = 0.041), but differences between patients with oral cancer and subjects with leukoplakia were not significant (1.26 ± 0.59 vs 1.09 ± 0.39 µg ml(-1) , P = 0.232). CONCLUSION: C4d-containing fragments are detected in oral primary tumors and are increased in saliva from patients with OSCC.