Vascular effects of the new anti-migraine agent almotriptan on human cranial and peripheral arteries

This paper describes the vascular effects of almotriptan in comparison with sumatriptan in human vessels and tissues in vitro. The contractile propert ies of almotriptan and sumatriptan were evaluated in vitro in the following arteries: meningeal, temporal, basilar, internal carotid, ophthalmic, pulm onary and coronary. In addition, the effects of almotriptan on the pulmonar y vein and on bronchial tissues were studied. Almotriptan showed selectivit y of action for migraine-related arteries (i.e. contractile EC50 of 30 and 700 nM for meningeal and temporal arteries, respectively), whereas the effe ct on arteries supplying blood to the brain was lower. The contractile effe ct of almotriptan was lower than that of sumatriptan in pulmonary arteries, whereas in bronchial preparations no clinically relevant contractile respo nses were observed for either almotriptan or sumatriptan. In ophthalmic art eries the contractile effects of almotriptan and sumatriptan were similar, whereas lower contractile effects were obtained with almotriptan than with sumatriptan in coronary arteries.