Status migrainosus: an unusual presentation of a brain abscess.

Status migrainosus and brain abscess are uncommon complications of migraine and infectious diseases, respectively. We describe a woman with a history of migraine with aura but without any history of a pyogenic infectious process, who suffered status migrainosus as the sole manifestation of a brain abscess.

Plasma met-enkephalin and catecholamine changes during the menstrual cycle and pain episode in menstrual migraine.

In order to explore opioid, sympathetic and hormonal parameters, we evaluated plasma met-enkephalin (ME), catecholamines (CA), estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P) in different phases of the menstrual cycle and during menstrual crisis in women suffering from menstrual migraine (MM) and in controls. No differences in P and E2 were found between controls and patients. We observed an increase in plasma ME and a decrease in plasma free norepinephrine (NE) levels on day 22 in MM group and an increase in plasma ME, free NE and total epinephrine (E) during pain. Our data, although obtained in a small number of patients, show clear modifications in plasma ME and in the sympathoadrenal function, not only during pain but also in the mid luteal phase.

Plasma met-enkephalin levels: its relationship with age and type of headache.

The aim of the present study was to assess the peripheral proenkephalin-A system in order to determine if it is related in any way to age and/or the type of headache. Our results show no significant change in plasma met-enkephalin (ME) and neutrophil met-enkephalin-containing peptide (NMECP) with aging in controls. Plasma ME levels and NMECP in patients suffering from migraine without aura and tension-type headaches were found to be similar in both groups, younger and older than 60 years old. When ME plasma levels were compared among the three groups of subjects in the two age-groups, only chronic tension-type headache patients differed ( [Formula: see text] ) from both controls and migraine without aura subjects.