Abstract
Background
During a migraine attack, trigeminal activation results in the release of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), which stimulates the release of inflammatory cytokines playing an important role in migraine. We analyze the serum level of CGRP between two groups of migrainous patients (with aura and without aura)
Materials and Methods
Thirty six migraine patients (included 18 patients with aura and 18 without aura) additionally 18 healthy volunteers consisted control group were selected from the clinic of Neurology, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran, between March 2020 and November 2020. The CGRP level were determined from the sera of patients with migraine and control subjects by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was also determined to calculate the correlation between CGRP and clinical findings.
Results
The level of CGRP in groups were significantly different between groups (P = 0.00). Also, the level of CGRP in aura group were significantly higher than non-aura group (P = 0.045). The Spearman’s correlation coefficient revealed a positive and significant correlation between the CGRP concentration and age (p = 0.042, r = 0.172), BMI (p = 0.013, r = 0.08), VAS (P = 0.006 ,r = 0.09), frequency of attacks (p = 0.005, r = 0.9), duration of each attack (p = 0.016, r = 0.23), Migraine Disability Assessment Scale.(p = 0.00, r = 0.785), average of number of Medication (p = 0.00, r = 0.694). However, no significant correlation was observed with gender. (P > 0.05 )
Conclusions
In our study, we found migraine patients had a higher CGRP level than healthy controls and the level of CGRP was related significantly with the duration, BMI, frequency of headache, age, number of headaches per day. In conclusion, our results confirmed that CGRP may be involved in the pathogenesis of migraine attacks and related with the multiple clinical characteristics.