Hand temperature norms for headache,hypertension, and irritable bowel syndrome

Hand temperature norms are presented for 221 headache patients (migraine, mixed, and tension), 105 hypertensives, 45 irritable bowel syndrome patients, and 56 normal controls under conditions of resting baseline, self-relaxation, volitional handwarming, mental arithmetic, and cold pressor. The two vascular headache groups (migraine and mixed) had significantly lower hand temperatures across conditions.This research was supported in part by grants from NINCDS (NS-15235 and NS-23440), from NHLBI (HL-27622 and HL-31189), and from NIDDK (DK-38614).