Pupil responsiveness in cluster headache: A dynamic TV pupillometric evaluation

In this study the variations in pupil diameter induced by different stimuli (dark-light adaptation, light reflex, electric stimulation of the sural nerve) were investigated in episodic (in the active or remission phases) and in chronic cluster headache (CH) patients. Pupil size monitoring was performed with a monocular, infrared TV pupillometer, and sural nerve stimuli were applied after the pain threshold had been measured as the flexion reflex threshold of the biceps femoris muscle (RIII reflex). The results were compared with those obtained in patients with "peripheral" (third neuron) Horner's syndrome and in healthy sex- and age-matched controls. On the symptomatic side we found an impairment of pupil response to light flashes and nociceptive stimuli; similar findings were sometimes evident on the pain-free side, too. These results substantiate previous observations that in cluster headache a dysfunction of the integrative central nervous system pathways also exists intercritically and mostly bilaterally, involving both autonomic regulation and pain perception mechanisms.