A phenome-wide association study identifying risk factors for pediatric post-concussion syndrome

ObjectiveTo identify risk factors and generate hypotheses for pediatric post-concussion syndrome (PCS) using a phenome-wide association study (PheWAS). MethodsA PheWAS (case-control) was conducted following the development and validation of a novel electronic health record-based algorithm that identified PCS cases and controls from an institutional database of >2.8 million patients. Cases were patients ages 5-18 with PCS codes or keywords identified by natural language processing of clinical notes. Controls were patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) codes only. Patients with moderate or severe brain injury were excluded. All patients used our healthcare system at least three times 180 days before their injury. Exposures included all pre-injury medical diagnoses assigned at least 180 days prior. ResultsThe algorithm identified 274 pediatric PCS cases (156 females) and 1,096 controls that were age and sex matched to cases. Cases and controls both had a mean of >8 years of healthcare system use pre-injury. Of 202 pre-injury medical, four were associated with PCS after controlling for multiple testing: headache disorders (OR=5.3; 95%CI 2.8-10.1;P=3.8e-7), sleep disorders (OR=3.1; 95%CI 1.8-5.2; P=2.6e-5), gastritis/duodenitis (OR=3.6, 95%CI 1.8-7.0;P=2.1e-4), and chronic pharyngitis (OR=3.3; 95%CI 1.8-6.3;P=2.2e-4). ConclusionsThese results confirm the strong association of pre-injury headache disorders with PCS and provides evidence for the association of pre-injury sleep disorders with PCS. An association of PCS with prior chronic gastritis/duodenitis and pharyngitis was seen that suggests a role for chronic inflammation in PCS pathophysiology and risk. These factors should be considered during the management of pediatric mTBI cases.