Painful scalp arteries in migraine

Abstract

Previous studies suggest a role of scalp perivascular structures in at least a substantial number of migraineurs. This study aimed to evaluate the presence of pressure-painful scalp arteries in patients with migraine. Pressure-painful points on scalp arteries were searched for in 100 consecutive patients affected with migraine, 84 females (F) and 16 males (M), 83 without aura (70 F) and 17 with aura (14 F), and in 30 healthy matched subjects. The examined arteries were, bilaterally, the superficial temporal and its frontal branch, the zygomatico-orbital, the occipital and the posterior auricular. We examined 75 patients interictally: 60 (80.0%) reported one or more (mean per subject 3.7 ± 1.9) pressure-painful arteries and 15 (20.0%) reported none. In the 30 controls, pressure-painful arteries were present in only nine (30.0%, mean per subject 1.3 ± 0.7), with highly significant differences (p < 0.001). During a migraine attack, of the 51 patients examined, 45 (88.2%, 38F) reported one or more (mean 3.8 ± 2.1) pressure-painful arteries and six (11.8%) reported none. Both when during an attack and interictally, the arteries most frequently involved were the occipital, the frontal branch, and the temporal. Scalp arteries are frequently painful to pressure in migraineurs, especially in females, both during headache and interictally. Painful arteries suggest hypersensitivity of periarterial nociceptive afferents, which is perhaps due to the local presence of endogenous algogenic products, as suggested by our previous studies.