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The Mediterranean diet is rich in vegetables, cereals, fruit, fish, milk, wine and olive oil and has salutary biological functions. Epidemiological studies have shown a lower incidence of atherosclerosis, cardiovascular diseases and certain kinds of cancer in the Mediterranean area. Olive oil is the main source of fat, and the Mediterranean diet's healthy effects can in particular be attributed not only to the high relationship between unsaturated and saturated fatty acids in olive oil but also to the antioxidant property of its phenolic compounds. The main phenolic compounds, hydroxytyrosol and oleuropein, which give extra-virgin olive oil its bitter, pungent taste, have powerful antioxidant activity bothin vivoandin vitro. The present review focuses on recent works analysing the relationship between the structure of olive oil polyphenolic compounds and their antioxidant activity. These compounds' possible beneficial effects are due to their antioxidant activity, which is related to the development of atherosclerosis and cancer, and to anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity.

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This study was planned to investigate the prevalence of osmophobia in juvenile headache sufferers and to analyse the diagnostic utility of osmophobia in order to distinguish migraine without aura from episodic tension-type headache. We examined 305 consecutive patients presenting at our Paediatric Headache Centre. A semistructured questionnaire was given to 275 selected patients affected by migraine or tension-type headache. The prevalence of osmophobia during attacks was 18.5%, mainly in migraine patients (25.1%) vs. those with tension-type headache (8.3%). Osmophobia showed more specificity than phonophobia or photophobia in the differential diagnosis between migraine and tension-type headache. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that osmophobia resulted in a symptom with poor sensitivity (27.1%) but high specificity (92%) that could become a supportive diagnostic criterion even in children for the differential diagnosis between migraine without aura and tension-type headache.

Our study shows that the -231 G>A polymorphism in the EDNRA gene is neither associated with primary juvenile headache nor significantly correlated with main clinical features characteristic of the headache pathology in pediatric settings.

IntroductionRecurring primary headaches, such as migraine or tension-type, are common during childhood (2.5%) and adolescence (15%) [1]. However, while ever increasing evidence shows that migraine is a complex neurovascular disorder with genetic factors playing a primary role in its aetiology, none of the genetic factors which have to date been shown to be linked to adult migraine susceptibility have been investigated in children, for whom primary headaches represent frequent causes for referral for neurologic assessment. In addition, while epidemiological, twin and family studies have revealed that approximately one-half of its variation is attributable to additive genes, with a negligible contribution of nonadditive genetic effects [2], the identification and validation of the underlying genetic risk factors poses enormous challenges even in adult migraine. The severity of migraine symptoms, such as the recurrence and duration of attacks and the age of onset, are variable among patients, thus rendering difficult both the definition of the appropriate phenotype as J Headache Pain (2005) Genetic polymorphisms have been evaluated in association studies, some of which have been suggested to be susceptibility markers for adult migraine. To date, however, none of the identified polymorphisms in adult migraine susceptibility have been investigated in children, raising the possibility that they may not be necessarily involved in paediatric migraine susceptibility. This paper reviews studies of the genetic basis of migraine and summarises our experience in genetic association studies in primary paediatric headache susceptibility.6:179-181 DOI 10.1007/s10194-005-0178-x Genetic risk factors in primary paediatric versus adult headache: complexities and problematics G E N E

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