Abstract: Objective: To analyze the specificity of calcitonin gene?related peptide (CGRP) levels, we measured alpha-CGRP circulating levels in a large series of patients with a recent diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who were interviewed regarding comorbid headache.
Background: Several studies have found an association between migraine and IBD.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study performed in an IBD clinic, morning serum alpha-CGRP levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 96 patients who were recently diagnosed with IBD and compared to those from 50 similar patients with chronic migraine (CM) and 50 healthy controls (HC).
Results: Alpha-CGRP levels were higher in patients with IBD (median [interquartile range] 56.9 [35.6?73.9] pg/mL) and patients with CM (53.0 [36.7?73.9] pg/mL) compared to HC (37.2 [30.0?51.8] pg/mL; p?=?0.003; p?=?0.019, respectively). Regarding IBD diagnostic subtypes, alpha-CGRP levels for ulcerative colitis (67.2?±?49.3?pg/mL; 57.0 [35.6?73.4] pg/mL) and Crohn's disease (54.9?±?27.5?pg/mL; 57.7 [29.1?76.1] pg/mL) were significantly higher than those of HC (p?=?0.013, p?=?0.040, respectively). Alpha-CGRP levels were further different in patients with IBD with migraine (70.9 [51.8?88.7] pg/mL) compared to HC (p?
