This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Graham, A.N. Articles by Wilkinson, M. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Graham, A.N. Articles by Wilkinson, M. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Ergotamine Toxicity and Serum Concentrations of Ergotamine in Migraine Patients

Wellington Public Hospital, Wellington, New Zealand

E.S. Johnson

Department of Pharmacology, King's College, Strand, London WC2R 2LS

N.P. Persaud

The City of London Migraine Clinic, 22 Charterhouse Square, London, ECI 6DX

P. Turner

Department of Clinical Pharmacology, St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, London EC1A 7BE

M. Wilkinson

The City of London Migraine Clinic, 22 Charterhouse Square, London, ECI 6DX

1 Twenty-five migraine patients (9 males and 16 females) aged 22 - 71 who had used between 7 and 60 mg ergotamine tartrate per week for 1.5 - 30 y volunteered to participate in the study.

2 Side-effects attributable to ergotamine were wide ranging and included daily headache and pain in the limbs. Wide variation in sensitivity to the drug was observed and side-effects were not always proportional to the dose of ergotamine.

3 Random serum ergotamine concentrations were estimated in all patients and 10 of them volunteered to take a 2 mg oral challenge of ergotamine tartrate.

4 Ergotamine was not detected in 44% of the random estimations even though all patients exhibited clinical signs of ergotamine tartrate overdose. The remaining 56% estimations all showed low drug concentrations.

5 After the 2 mg oral challenge of ergotamine in the 10 patients, significantly higher concentrations, but still within therapeutic range, were detected in the sera when compared with mean concentrations achieved after the same oral dose of the drug in healthy, non-migrainous subjects.

Human & Experimental Toxicology, Vol. 3, No. 3, 193-199 (1984)
DOI: 10.1177/096032718400300304


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?