Menstruation Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Menstruation, including details on menstrual cycle, pregnancy, pain, irregular menstruation.

Time-series data and the "migraine generator".

Fox AW

EBD Group, Carlsbad, CA 92009, USA.

OBJECTIVE: To examine circadian and menstrual patterns of migraine frequency in order to identify properties of the putative migraine generator. METHODS: Analysis of circadian and menstrual migraine attack frequency distributions, using between-interval differences as estimates, at each time point, of the derivative of the equation that would, theoretically, model the observed oscillating functions. RESULTS: Circadian and menstrual analyses exhibit many similarities that are consistent with a single migraine generator in the final common pathway for expression of the phenotype. These analyses are inconsistent with a role for cortisol or ACTH to be activators of the putative migraine generator, could be consistent with visual stimulation as a deactivator of the generator, and may also be consistent with a low threshold concentration of estradiol and/or progestagens as inactivators of the migraine generator. CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of time-series data using differentials uncovers some previously unidentified chronobiological properties of migraine, helps select amongst various candidate provocative factors, and suggests some properties of a putative migraine generator.

Published 29 June 2005 in Headache, 45(7): 920-5.
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