Salivary inflammatory markers in tension type headache and migraine: the SalHead cohort study

Objective To investigate the possible association between salivary CRP, IL-1 beta, and IL-6 levels, depression/anxiety and migraine, and tension type headache (TTH) in saliva of these patients. Method A longitudinal prospective study was conducted on 30 migraineurs, 30 TTH patients, and 30 age-matched healthy controls. Anxiety and depression were measured by using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Salivary IL-6, IL-1 beta, and CRP were collected in distinct time points as A: headache-free period, B: during headache, C: 1 day after headache attack, and measured by using ELISA kits. Results No significant differences were found in time variation of CRP, IL-1 beta, and IL-6 levels between migraine and TTH (p > 0.05). IL1-beta had the highest discriminative value (area under the curve = 0.924, p value < 0.001), and then CRP (area under the curve = 0.763, p value < 0.001) and IL-6 (area under the curve = 0.537, p value = 0.58). CRP and IL-6 were negatively correlated with HAM-A and BDI scores. Conclusion IL1-beta had the highest discriminative value between headache patients and controls compared with CRP and IL-6. CRP and IL-6 were correlated with lower symptom scores of anxiety and depression prior or immediately after the headache period in patients groups.