Cluster headache (CH) is a disabling headache disorder with chronobiological features. The posterior hypothalamus is involved in CH pathophysiology and is a hub for autonomic control. We studied autonomic response to the head-up tilt table test (HUT) including heart rate variability (HRV) in CH patients and compared results to healthy controls.
Twenty-seven episodic and chronic CH patients and an equal number of age-, sex- and BMI-matched controls were included. We analyzed responses to HUT in the time and frequency domain and by non-linear analysis.
CH patients have normal cardiovascular responses compared to controls but increased blood pressure. In the frequency analysis CH patients had a smaller change in the normalized low- (LF) (2.89 vs. 13.38, p?