title: Craniometric measures in cluster headache patients.
abstract: Blockade of venous drainage in the cavernous sinus, which may play a pivotal role in the pathophysiology of cluster headache (CH), could be triggered by local inflammation. It could also be favored by a constitutional narrowness of the cavernous sinus region. Before exploring the latter with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we determined whether external morphometric skull measures are different among CH patients (n = 25), healthy volunteers (n = 21), and migraine patients (n = 20). All subjects were males of comparable age distribution. Six measures were taken: inion-nasion perimeter, inion-nasion distance over the vertex; distance between the upper ends of tragus; diameter at the level of the temporal fossa; diameter at mid inion-nasion perimeter at ear level; and inion-nasion diameter. CH patients had significantly smaller values than healthy subjects and/or migraine patients in all but one measure (ANOVA and Duncan's post-hoc analysis). This may suggest that they have a narrower anterior/middle cranial fossa, and possibly a narrower cavernous sinus loggia, which needs to be confirmed by a quantitative MRI study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, CHR Citadelle, University of Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Afra
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Cecchini
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schoenen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002426:Cavernous Sinus / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D002508:Cephalometry; D003027:Cluster Headache / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D012016:Reference Values; D012307:Risk Factors; D014690:Venous Pressure / Q000502:physiology