Vascular responses in headache-prone subjects during stress

Abstract

To see whether vascular reactivity differed among clinically-defined headache categories, amplitude of pulsation of the superficial temporal artery, facial temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and respiration rate were monitored during mental arithmetic and reaction time tests in 30 young women subject to classical migraine, common migraine or episodically-recurring tension headaches, and in 10 others who rarely or never had headaches. The reliability of responses was assessed on three consecutive days. Facial temperature decreased more in headache-prone than in nonheadache subjects throughout the experiment. Initial increases in temporal pulse amplitude, sustained increases in respiration rate, and increases in systolic blood pressure and heart rate during the first session were greater in the classical and common migraine groups than in the tension headache group. Temporal pulse amplitude and heart rate responses were greatest in the classical migraine group. Since standardized increases in temporal pulse amplitude were greater than increases in other modalities in only a minority of headache-prone subjects, it was concluded that dilatation of extracranial arteries during stress does not form an essential part of the migraine syndrome.