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Published in: The Journal of Headache and Pain 1/2017

Open Access 01-12-2017 | Review article

Cardiac cephalalgia: one case with cortical hypoperfusion in headaches and literature review

Authors: Miao Wang, Lu Wang, Changfu Liu, Xiangbing Bian, Zhao Dong, Shengyuan Yu

Published in: The Journal of Headache and Pain | Issue 1/2017

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Abstract

Background

Cardiac cephalalgia (CC) is a rare disease occurring during an episode of myocardial ischemia and relieved by nitroglycerine. Though more than 30 cases of CC have been reported since 1997, the mechanism is yet obscure. Herein, a case of CC is presented and discussed in relevance with previous literature to propose a novel hypothesis about the mechanism of CC.

Method

A CC patient with cortical hypoperfusion during headache attacks was presented, which has never been reported. All published cases of CC via PubMed (http://​www.​ncbi.​nlm.​nih.​gov/​pubmed) in English literature, between 1997 and 2016, were reviewed.

Results

A patient suffering from CC presented a cerebral hypoperfusion during a headache attack. This phenomenon had not been observed since CC was introduced in 1997. The literature review summarized the clinical presentations, neuroimaging features, ECG, and coronary angiography features of 35 CC patients.

Conclusion

Based on the phenomenon of hypoperfusion in the event of a headache, the vessel constriction hypothesis was proposed including two potential physiological mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of CC.
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Metadata
Title
Cardiac cephalalgia: one case with cortical hypoperfusion in headaches and literature review
Authors
Miao Wang
Lu Wang
Changfu Liu
Xiangbing Bian
Zhao Dong
Shengyuan Yu
Publication date
01-12-2017
Publisher
Springer Milan
Published in
The Journal of Headache and Pain / Issue 1/2017
Print ISSN: 1129-2369
Electronic ISSN: 1129-2377
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s10194-017-0732-3

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