INTRACRANIAL HYPERTENSION AND SUMATRIPTAN EFFICACY IN A CASE OF CHRONIC PAROXYSMAL HEMICRANIA WHICH BECAME BILATERAL - (THE MECHANISM OF INDOMETHACIN IN CPH)

A female patient is described who had a four year long period of unilateral chronic paroxysmal hemicrania (CPH) which then became bilateral. For some years before the CPH started she suffered from periods of about one month with chronic hemicrania without nerve involvement. She also suffered from chronic fatigue, back pain, arthralgia, vertigo, chronic constipation and spontaneous ecchymoses. Blood tests showed chronic leukocytosis, low serum iron, and signs of inflammation in serum electrophoresis during the five years she was studied. CPH attacks could be provoked by breathing 6% carbon dioxide in air. Lumbar cerebrospinal fluid pressure was pathologically increased (30 cm water). The attacks decreased during indomethacin treatment but 275 mg was needed for satisfactory control of the attacks, i.e., more than the 150 mg which, according to the criteria for CPH, should be absolutely effective. Sumatriptan was found to suppress the CPH attacks as well as indomethacin. Due to these findings CPH is considered to be another manifestation of venous vasculitis. The beneficiary mechanism of indomethacin in CPH is considered to be due partly to its anti-inflammatory effects and partly to its reduction of the intracranial blood flow.