Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) and Tumour
Necrosis Factor-alpha (
TNF-alpha) exert their multifunctional
biological effect by promoting and increasing the molecular events of cellular
inflammation. The aim of this study was to find out whether the
cytokine pattern of
cervicogenic headache (CH) patients tends, like that seen in
cluster headache, towards an inflammatory status. Fifteen CH patients, diagnosed according to the 1998 CHISG criteria, were analysed for serum IL-beta (ELISA) and
TNF-alpha (bioassay and ELISA) both during the natural course of a painful attack and during a phase of mechanically worsened
pain. The control groups consisted of 15
migraine without aura (MWA) patients and 15 historically healthy subjects. The MWA patients were studied both during (MWA-IN) and outside (MWA-OUT) a
migraine attack. Higher levels of both
IL-1 beta and
TNF-alpha were detected in the sera of CH patients than in that of MWA-IN and MWA-OUT and C subjects. A difference also emerged in CH between spontaneous and mechanically worsened
pain phases. We conclude that the degree of
cytokine production may depend on the different pathophysiological mechanisms at work in MWA and CH.