Abstract
Inhalation of hyperbaric oxygen has been used as an experimental treatment for migraine and pure oxygen is an established treatment for cluster headache. Intravenous glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) is an established headache model. In the present study the possibility of decreasing the headache by inhalation of pure oxygen was explored in a double-blind crossover design in 18 healthy subjects. Inhalation of air served as placebo. The subjects received intravenous GTN (0.25 µg/kg/min) for 20 min. Headache was scored for 85 min. Sixteen of 18 (89%) subjects experienced GTN-induced headache after O2-inhalation and 17/18 (94%) experienced GTN-induced headache after air. The mean peak headache scores were 1.9 and 2.4, respectively, on a numerical scale of 0–10. Oxygen inhalation did not have effect on GTN-induced headache, most likely because the theoretical decrease in NO levels, due to faster metabolism of NO, is too small to be detected in the GTN headache model.
Keywords: Oxygen, Glyceryl trinitrate, Nitric oxide, Headache
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Acknowledgments
The study was supported by The Migraine Trust, UK, by the Danish Headache Society, and by the Lundbeck Foundation via the Lundbeck Foundation Center for Neurovascular Signaling (LUCENS), Denmark. Statistical advice was provided by statistician Lene Theil Skovgaard, Department of Biostatistics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. We are grateful for the assistance of laboratory technicians Bente Leisner and Kirsten Enghave.
Conflict of interest
None.
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