• Xun Han, Zhao Dong, Lei Hou, Dongjun Wan, Min Chen, Wenjing Tang, and Shengyuan Yu.
• Medical Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Department of Neurology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China.
• Clin. Chim. Acta. 2015 Oct 23; 450: 151-4.

BackgroundPituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) is associated with migraine phase; however, whether PACAP levels could be used to distinguish between migraine and tension-type headache (TTH) remains unknown. We compared interictal plasma PACAP levels among healthy controls, migraineurs, and patients with TTH.MethodsInterictal plasma levels of PACAP were measured in 133 migraineurs, 106 patients with TTH, and 50 controls using enzyme-linked immunoassays. We further evaluated the relationships between interictal PACAP plasma concentrations and clinical parameters, such as headache severity, attack frequency, and duration.ResultsWe found that migraineurs had significantly lower interictal plasma PACAP levels than patients with TTH and healthy controls. However, there were no significant differences between patients with TTH and healthy controls. Plasma PACAP levels were significantly lower in patients with episodic migraine (EM) than in patients with episodic tension-type headache (ETTH) and in patients with chronic migraine (CM) than in patients with chronic tension-type headache (CTTH). Interictal PACAP levels were negatively correlated with duration in the CM group.ConclusionsThe results of this study demonstrated differences in interictal PACAP levels in migraine and TTH, suggesting that PACAP is involved in the pathogenesis of migraine rather than TTH.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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