BLOOD GROUPING, GENOTYPE AND WHITE BLOOD CELL DIFFERENTIAL AMONGST MIGRAINE PATIENTS ATTENDING UNIVERSITY OF MAIDUGURI TEACHING HOSPITAL, MAIDUGURI, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study was aimed at assessing the involvement of leukocytes, blood group and genotype during acute migraine attack so as to provide physicians with guidelines for the identification of subjects at risk in clinical practice. One hundred consecutive adult (18 years and above) patients that met the International Headache Society diagnostic criteria for migraine who attended the Neurology Clinic of the Department of Medicine, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Maiduguri from May, 2010 to October, 2011 and from whom informed consent was obtained were evaluated for this disorder. General, physical and neurological examinations were also conducted at which samples were taken for haematological analysis before acute therapy. Twenty-one, 12, 19 and 48 percent of the patients enrolled in this study had blood group A, B, AB and O respectively. Genotypically, 39% and 61% of the patients had normal (AA) and carrier (AS) genotype respectively. There was a statistical significant difference in the levels of neutrophils (p<0.01), lymphocyte (p<0.05) and eosinophils (p<0.05) among the migraineurs with moderate and severe head pain during acute attack studied. Based on this study, migraine attack was found to increase the levels of lymphocyte and eosinophils above the reference hospital value and is common independent of the blood group or genotypic expression.