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Uni Essen

University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

Prof. Diener is a clinician by training and principle investigator for University of Duisburg-Essen (Uni Essen). He is Chairman of the Department of Neurology at his University and President of the German Neurological Society. He will contribute to the Project with his extensive, clinical, epidemiological, and experimental migraine (imaging) expertise to workpackage 4 and workpackage 8. Prof. Diener heads the German Headache Consortium funded by the German Ministry of Science and Technology. This Consortium will provide patients with chronified migraine (over 15 attack days per month), drug-overuse, and responders or non-responders for triptans that will be used in genotyping-phenotyping correlation studies of workpackage 4. For EUROHEAD, he will perform clinical studies on patients together with Glostrup University Hospital (KASGlostrup) and University of Liège (Ulg).

Summary of relevant expertise

  1. Migraine epidemiology. Uni Essen has the largest Headache Centre in Germany and is the headquarter of the German Headache Consortium. In this multicentre organisation the mechanisms of chronificiation of headache are studied on the level of animal experiments, epidemiological studies in children and adults, studies on the pathophysiology of chronic headache and treatment trials. In addition, Uni Essen has extensive expertise in imaging techniques, including MRI analysis in patients, and were the first to show involvement of the brain stem in migraine pathophysiology using Positron Emission Tomography studies of patients analysed while they were having migraine attacks.
  2. Pharmacogenetics.Diener's Centre has a long and extensive experience in the planning and conduct of clinical trials in the treatment of migraine (over ten trials with Prof. Diener as PI). With this experience we will identify responders and non-responders to migraine treatment and prophylaxis and provide these patients for the genetic analysis.

Five recent publications: (From a total of >300 Peer-reviewed publications)

Efficacy of acupuncture for the prophylaxis of migraine: a multicentre randomised controlled clinical trial.

Diener HC, Kronfeld K, Boewing G, Lungenhausen M, Maier C, Molsberger A, Tegenthoff M, Trampisch HJ, Zenz M, Meinert R; for the GERAC Migraine Study Group.

Lancet Neurol 2006;5:310-6.

Visual cortex excitability in migraine evaluated by single and paired magnetic stimuli.

Gerwig M, Niehaus L, Kastrup O, Stude P, Diener HC.

Headache 2005;45:1394-9

Lamotrigine reduces migraine aura and migraine attacks in patients with migraine with aura.

Lampl C, Katsarava Z, Diener HC, Limmroth V.

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2005;76:1730-2.

Gray matter decrease in patients with chronic tension type headache.

Schmidt-Wilcke T, Leinisch E, Straube A, Kampfe N, Draganski B, Diener HC, Bogdahn U, May A.

Neurology 2005;65:1483-6.

The International Classification of Headache Disorders, 2nd Edition (ICHD-II)--revision of criteria for 8.2 Medication-overuse headache.

Silberstein SD, Olesen J, Bousser MG, Diener HC, Dodick D, First M, Goadsby PJ, Gobel H, Lainez MJ, Lance JW, Lipton RB, Nappi G, Sakai F, Schoenen J, Steiner TJ;International Headache Society.

Cephalalgia 2005;25:460-5

This page last modified: 06/04/2006