Familial periodicity in a multigenerational family of cluster headache: A case report

I describe an unusual phenotypic phenomenon in two members of a multigenerational family of cluster headache (CH) with anticipation features. The index case, a 44-year-old woman, and her sister, a 40-year-old woman, have a CH phenotype with atypical features as the burning of the nose. Besides ident...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cyprian Popescu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2019-12-01
Series:Cephalalgia Reports
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/2515816319897047
Description
Summary:I describe an unusual phenotypic phenomenon in two members of a multigenerational family of cluster headache (CH) with anticipation features. The index case, a 44-year-old woman, and her sister, a 40-year-old woman, have a CH phenotype with atypical features as the burning of the nose. Besides identically circadian and circannual features, they present distinct chronobiological features with the onset of the episodic pain attack every third day between them. I propose to entitle this clinical feature “familial periodicity” because of the remarkable phenotypic correlation and probably a similar genotype in the two sisters. Pathophysiologically, this phenomenon may be the result of the dysfunction of the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus on a genetic basis. This is the first case of familial periodicity, which allows extending the clinical spectrum of CH.
ISSN:2515-8163