Comparison of plasma lipid peroxidation between migraine and tension type headache in Iraqi patients.

Abstract

The oxidant-antioxidant balance disorders underlie a number of acute and chronic diseases of the central
nervous system (CNS). It is believed that oxidative stress plays a role in the pathogenesis of migraine. The
study objective is to assess the processes of lipid peroxidation with malondialdehyde (MDA) as its major
indicator. The study was carried out on Iraqi patients to estimate the level of lipid peroxidation in three groups
include control group (41subjects), tension-type headache (TTH) (41patients) and migraine (31patients). The
migraine, TTH, and control groups were significantly different on the measures of MDA. The study showed
that the migranieurs were significantly different from other two groups with respect to MDA (p<0.001). No
significant difference between males and females within each of the three groups (p >0.05). The only
significant difference between females’ age-groups was reported between (15-27years) and (28-40years) years
old-groups (according to Games-Howell test (P=0.013) while Tukey HSD and Dunnett test contradicted the
exits of any differences between them (P>0.05). According to the major similarity between aged-groups for
both males and females in the three groups, it can be concluded that MDA level is not affected by age.