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Abstract
Nitric oxide (NO) may play a key role in migraine and other vascular headaches since
glyceryl trinitrate (a donor of NO) and histamine (which probably activates endothelial
NO formation) both cause a pulsating dose-dependent headache with several migrainous
characteristics. At relatively high doses of glyceryl trinitrate, migraine sufferers
develop stronger and more migraine-like headaches and more pronounced cerebral arterial
dilatation than controls. After the infusion of glyceryl trinitrate, non-migraineurs
remain headache-free while migraineurs develop a migraine-like attack. In this review,
Jes Olesen, Lars Thomsen and Helle Iversen suggest that migraine may be caused by
increased amounts and/or affinity of an enzyme in the NO-triggered cascade of reactions.
NO may also be involved in the pathogenesis of other vascular headaches.