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Updated: May 18, 2026
A Convenient Method for Extraction and Analysis with High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography of Catecholamine Neurotransmitters and Their Metabolites
Published on: March 1, 2018
Normal cerebrospinal fluid histamine and tele-methylhistamine levels in hypersomnia conditions
Yves Dauvilliers1, Nathalie Delallée, Isabelle Jaussent
1Sleep Unit, Department of Neurology, Gui de Chauliac Hospital, CHU Montpellier, National Reference Network for Orphan Diseases-Narcolepsy, Hypersomnia, Kleine-Levin Syndrome, France. ydauvilliers@yahoo.fr
Study Objectives:
To determine the activity of cerebral histaminergic system evaluated by CSF levels of histamine (HA) and tele-methylhistamine (t-MHA), its major metabolite, and their relationships with hypocretin-1 levels in a large population of patients with hypersomnia and neurological conditions.
Design:
sensitive liquid chromatographic-electrospray/tandem mass spectrometric assay was developed for the simultaneous quantification of CSF HA and t-MHA.
Setting:
ata were collected and CSF hypocretin-1 levels were measured using radioimmunoassay at the Sleep Disorders Center, Montpellier, France. CSF HA and t-MHA were measured in Bioprojet-Biotech, France
Participants:
One hundred fourteen unrelated patients with a suspicion of central hypersomnia underwent one night of polysomnography followed by the multiple sleep latency test. Sleep disorders were diagnosed clinically and using sleep studies: narcolepsy-cataplexy NC (n = 56), narcolepsy without cataplexy NwC (n = 27), idiopathic hypersomnia IH (n = 11), secondary narcolepsy (n = 3), and unspecified hypersomnia Uns EDS (n = 17). Fifty neurological patients without daytime sleepiness were included as controls.
Measurements And Results:
No between-hypersomnia group differences were found for CSF HA levels (median 708.62 pM extreme range [55.92-3335.50] in NC; 781.34 [174.08-4391.50] in NwC; 489.42 [177.45-906.70] in IH, and 1155.40 [134.80-2736.59] in Uns EDS) or for t-MHA levels. No association was found between CSF HA, t-MHA, or HA + t-MHA, sleepiness, treatment intake, and frequency of cataplexy. A slight negative correlation was found between age and HA levels. Further adjustment for the age revealed no significant HA levels difference between hypersomnia patients and controls.
Conclusion:
CSF histamine and tele-methylhistamine did not significantly differ between patients with narcolepsy-cataplexy and other etiologies of non-hypocretin-1 deficient central hypersomnias; these measurements, therefore, are not useful in assessing the etiology or severity of centrally mediated hypersomnia.
