Andrew Nelsen

Medullary pain facilitating neurons mediate allodynia in headache-related pain†

To develop and validate a model of cutaneous allodynia triggered by dural inflammation for pain associated with headaches. To explore neural mechanisms underlying cephalic and extracephalic allodynia.

Gastric Stasis Occurs in Spontaneous, Visually Induced, and Interictal Migraine

Objective.— To evaluate and compare gastric motility and emptying during spontaneous migraine to previous observations from induced migraine.

Rapid Transition from Inhaled Iloprost to Inhaled Treprostinil in Patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Background Inhaled treprostinil is a prostacyclin analog approved for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) that may provide a more convenient treatment option for patients receiving inhaled iloprost while maintaining the clinical benefit of inhaled prostacyclin therapy. Aims In this open-label safety study, 73 PAH patients were enrolled with primarily World Health Organization Class II (56%) or III (42%) symptoms. At baseline, most patients (93%) were receiving 5 μg of iloprost per dose but 38% of patients reported a dosing frequency below the labeled rate of 6–9 times daily. Patients initiated inhaled treprostinil at 3 breaths four times daily (qid) at the immediate next scheduled iloprost dose. The primary objective was to assess the safety of rapid transition from iloprost to inhaled treprostinil; clinical status and quality of life were also assessed. Results Most patients (84%) achieved the target treprostinil dose of 9 breaths qid and remained on study until transition to commercial therapy (89%). The most frequent adverse events (AEs) were cough (74%), headache (44%), and nausea (30%), and five patients prematurely discontinued study drug due to AE (n = 3), disease progression (n = 1), or death (n = 1). At week 12, the time spent on daily treatment activities was reduced compared to baseline, with a mean total savings of 1.4 h per day. Improvements were also observed at week 12 for 6-min walk distance (+16.0; P < 0.001), N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (−74 pg/mL; P = 0.001), and the Cambridge Pulmonary Hypertension Outcome Review (all domains P < 0.001). Conclusions Pulmonary arterial hypertension patients can be safely transitioned from inhaled iloprost to inhaled treprostinil while maintaining clinical status.

Consistency of return to normal function, productivity, and satisfaction following migraine attacks treated with sumatriptan/naproxen sodium combination.

To assess the consistency of improved functioning, productivity, and medication satisfaction in migraines treated with a single tablet of sumatriptan 85 mg/naproxen sodium 500 mg (S/NS) using an early intervention approach.

Dosing characteristics of oral treprostinil in real-world clinical practice

Pharmacokinetic studies with oral treprostinil demonstrate that three times daily (TID) dosing reduces peak-to-trough plasma trepostinil fluctuations compared with twice daily (BID) dosing. TID dosing may allow for faster titration, higher total daily doses, and potentially improve the tolerability of oral trepostinil. This analysis, which looks at the real-world dosing of oral treprostinil, supports the utility of TID dosing.