The role of the autonomic dysfunction in the physiopathology of migraine has been the subject of several studies and sympathetic hypofunction during painless period and a reduction of serum adrenalin level have been observed. For the recent years, the sympathetic skin responses (SSR) that is a test giving a way to examine the function of autonomic nervous system simply, practically, and confidently has been used throughout. Since the afferent and efferent pathways of SSR have been known well, it has been used in clinical situation of peripheric autonomic dysfunction till now. But there is unsufficient knowledge related to the central tracts, in clinical presentation characterized with central autonomic dysfunction, this test has not been used commonly. SSR has been shown to be affected with emotional and conscious level that is why it is thought to be that there should be an important role of central pathway in the reflex arch. In this study, SSRs of normal healthy individuals and migraine headache sufferers have been compaired. Among these two groups, the latancies and the amplitudes of SSR have revealed statistically no significant differences. As a result, it has been thought that SSRs in migraine headache sufferers characterized with central autonomic dysfunction showed no significant difference and could not be a good parameter for the follow up. [Journal of Turgut Özal Medical Center 1997;4(3):285-290]
Key Words: Sympathetic skin response, migraine headache, autonomic dysfunction
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