Histamine metabolism in cluster headache and migraine. Catabolism of 14C histamine.

Various parameters of histamine metabolism were studied in patients with migraine, cluster headache and chronic paroxysmal hemicrania. These included urinary excretion of radioactivity and of 14C histamine and its metabolites, exhaled 14CO2 and fecal radioactivity after oral as well as subcutaneous administration of radioactive histamine. No marked deviation from the normal was found except in one patient with the cluster headache variant, chronic paroxysmal hemicrania, in whom an aberration in 14C histamine degradation seemed to be present. Only minute quantities of the 14C histamine metabolite C14 imidazoleacetic acid riboside seemed to be formed during a period with severe paroxysms. During a symptom-free period no deviation from normal was observed. The most likely explanation for this finding seems to be a defect in the conversion of imidazoleacetic acid to its riboside. This defect may possibly explain the increased urinary excretion of histamine in this particular patient. The relationship of this metabolic aberration to the production of headache still remains dubious for various reasons.