Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0018681 (headache)
 56,091 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We investigated whether central pain mechanisms including the endogenous antinociceptive system are involved in functional abdominal pain--that is, abdominal pain without abnormal findings at routine examinations. beta-Endorphin, met-enkephalin immunoreactivity, and dynorphin immunoreactivity were measured in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from nine patients with long-lasting functional abdominal pain and nine pain-free controls undergoing minor surgery while under spinal analgesia. Furthermore, pain sensitivity was evaluated with an ischaemic pain test comparing 21 functional abdominal pain patients with two control groups: 1) 24 patients with organic abdominal pain due to duodenal ulcer, gallstone, or urinary tract calculi, and 2) 13 healthy pain-free controls. The CSF beta-endorphin concentration was significantly decreased in the functional abdominal pain group as compared with nine matched controls (P = 0.01). Met-enkephalin and dynorphin immunoreactivities were normal. This part of the investigation was suspended after nine patients had been tested, because of post-lumbar-puncture headache. With regard to pain sensitivity, no significant difference between the three groups was shown, but subdivision of the functional abdominal pain group showed that individuals with pain and no symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) were significantly more sensitive to pain than functional abdominal pain patients with IBS and healthy controls (P = 0.04).
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PMID:Decreased cerebrospinal fluid beta-endorphin and increased pain sensitivity in patients with functional abdominal pain. 790 92

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentration of Met-enkephalin immunoreactivity (Met-enkephalin-ir) was determined by radioimmunoassay in 47 patients with chronic tension-type headache and in 47 headache-free control subjects. Thirty-nine of the controls were patients receiving spinal analgesia before surgery for diseases not associated with pain; 8 were healthy paid volunteers. Patients reporting migraine more than 1 day per month were excluded. Pericranial tenderness, nociceptive flexion reflex and thermal pain thresholds were determined in the majority of the patients. The median level of CSF Met-enkephalin-ir was significantly higher (115 pmol/l) (quartiles (107-134) pmol/l) in the headache patients than in the controls (median 79 pmol/l) (quartiles (73-87) pmol/l) (Mann-Whitney, P < 0.001). No indication of sex-difference or correlation with age with respect to CSF Met-enkephalin-ir was found. No correlation was found between CSF Met-enkephalin-ir and either pericranial tenderness, nociceptive flexion-reflex threshold, or thermal pain threshold. There was no indication of correlation between consumption of mild analgesics and CSF Met-enkephalin-ir. The higher levels of CSF Met-enkephalin-ir in the headache patients may be indicate activation of the enkephalinergic antinociceptive system at the spinal/trigeminal level, whereas the beta-endorphinergic system appears normal. This enkephalinergic activation may be caused by increased activity in the primary nociceptive afferents, or may be compensatory to decreased activity in other endogenous antinociceptive systems than the opioid.
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PMID:Increased cerebrospinal fluid Met-enkephalin immunoreactivity in patients with chronic tension-type headache. 857 79