Autonomic nervous system function was studied in 62 patients with migraine. The Valsalva maneuver, deep breathing test, sustained handgrip test, orthostatic test and spectral analysis of heart rate variability in the supine and standing positions were performed in a group of 62 patients of both sexes, aged 21 to 50 years, and in an age-matched control group of 45 healthy volunteers. Heart rate increases during sustained handgrip was significantly reduced in the headache group, when compared to the control group, while the results of the remaining cardiovascular tests did not significantly differ between the control and headache groups. In standing patients, the integrals of middle frequency bands of amplitude spectra were smaller in patients than in controls because the increase induced by standing was smaller in migraine patients. The results in patients with migraine with aura (21 patients) and migraine without aura (41 patients) did not differ significantly from each other. The same was true for the results of the female and male patients. It is concluded that sympathetic function is impaired in migraine patients.

Background and Purpose-In our study we hypothesized that statins improve endothelial function in patients with lacunar infarctions (LI). Cerebral and systemic endothelial function was determined before and after 3-months treatment with atorvastatin. Methods-Cerebral endothelial function was determined by L-arginine reactivity and systemic endothelial function by flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) in patients with LI (18 patients, aged 61.1Ϯ7.6 years), 20 age-and gender-matched patients with similar risk factors (SR) and 19 age-and gender-matched healthy controls. The mean arterial velocity (v m ) in both middle cerebral arteries was measured by transcranial Doppler sonography before, during and after a 30-minute intravenous infusion of L-arginine. FMD of the brachial artery after hyperaemia was determined. The measurements were repeated after 3-months treatment with 40 mg of atorvastatin per day. Results-L-arginine reactivity was decreased in LI patients (13.1Ϯ8.4%) and in patients with SR compared with healthy controls (PՅ0.01). FMD was more impaired in patients with LI (0.06Ϯ4.9%) compared with patients with SR and healthy controls (PՅ0.01). After atorvastatin treatment, L-arginine reactivity and FMD improved in both patients with LI (17.1Ϯ7.6%; 7.0Ϯ5.7%) and patients with SR (PՅ0.01). Previously mildly increased cholesterol values normalized. Conclusion-The

Background: It is well known that endothelial dysfunction plays an important role in the pathogenesis of many cardiovascular disorders. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that specific, marked endothelial dysfunction of cerebral arteries is present in patients with lacunar cerebral infarctions. Methods: Cerebrovascular reactivity to L-arginine, which reveals the function of the cerebral endothelium, was investigated in patients with lacunar infarctions (20 patients, 11 male and 9 female, aged 60.9 ± 7.3 years), 21 age- and gender-matched asymptomatic patients with similar cardiovascular risk factors (all patients had arterial hypertension) and 21 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. The mean arterial velocity (v_m) in both middle cerebral arteries was measured by transcranial Doppler sonography during a 15-min baseline period, a 30-min intravenous infusion of L-arginine and a 15-min interval after L-arginine infusion. Arterial blood pressure, heart rate and CO₂ were measured continuously. Results: The measured v_m increase during L-arginine infusion in the patients with lacunar infarctions (13.4 ± 9.1%) was significantly lower compared to the healthy controls (20.5 ± 9.9%) but similar to that obtained in the patients with cardiovascular risk factors (11.5 ± 8.9%). Conclusions: Our results showed that cerebrovascular reactivity to L-arginine, which demonstrates cerebral endothelial function, is significantly impaired in patients with cardiovascular risk factors. Importantly, we found that patients with lacunar infarctions do not show any additional impairment of cerebral endothelial function.

Neurovascular coupling may be altered in migraneurs. Therefore, visual evoked potentials (VEP) and visually evoked cerebral blood flow velocity responses (VEFR) were simultaneously recorded in 30 healthy controls and 30 migraneurs interictally using a checkerboard stimulus with visual contrasts of 1%, 10% and 100%. The VEFR were measured in the posterior cerebral artery using transcranial Doppler and VEP were recorded from occipital leads. We found an increase in VEFR and VEP in both the healthy and migraneur groups (P < 0.01). VEFR were significantly higher in migraneurs (P < 0.01), while VEP did not significantly differ between the groups (P > 0.05). Regression showed a significant association between VEP and VEFR in both healthy controls (r = 0.66, P < 0.01) and migraneurs (r = 0.63, P < 0.01). The regression coefficient of migraneurs (b = 0.88, SE = 0.08) was significantly higher than that of healthy controls (b = 0.55, SE = 0.07) (P = 0.04). We conclude that neurovascular coupling is increased in migraneurs interictally.

Dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) often complicates the clinical course in patients with acute stroke. The studies of the function of ANS in patients with brainstem stroke are scarce. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the function of ANS in the early period after acute brainstem stroke and to find out whether the location of stroke in brainstem influences the function of ANS. We studied heart rate variability (HRV) and plasma levels of catecholamines in 14 eligible patients with medullary (6 patients) and non-medullary (8 patients) brainstem stroke during the first 6 weeks after stroke. Integrals over the low- (LFB; 0.04–0.15 Hz) and high-frequency bands (HFB; 0.15–0.40 Hz) of power spectra were calculated. When compared to controls, the integrals over HFB in the hyperacute (p < 0.001) and over LFB in the hyperacute (p < 0.005) and in the acute (p < 0.05) phases were significantly smaller in patients with medullary strokes. Integrals over LFB and HFB in patients with non-medullary strokes did not differ significantly from controls, regardless of the phase of the disease. Plasma levels of epinephrine in patients with non-medullary stroke in the hyperacute and in the acute phases were significantly higher than in controls (p < 0.005). We conclude that there is transient dysfunction of ANS in patients with acute medullary stroke, in contrast to those with non-medullary brainstem stroke.