Magnetic Resonance Imaging Characteristics in Migraine / Монголын Анагаах Ухаан

ABSTRACT

Background@#Migraine is a chronic and recurrent vascular headache, and is one of the most common diseases in the general population. Evidence suggests that migraine is associated with an increased risk of silent infarct lesions and high signal intensities observed at the time of performing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).@*Objectives@#To determine the frequency of hyperintense foci in migraine patients and the relationship with migraine headache characteristics and cerebrovascular risk factors.@*Material and Methods@#Eighty patients with migraine headache (31 with aura and 49 without aura) were enrolled and interviewed. Twenty headache-free individuals of the same age range were used as controls. Information of patients with migraine, on their headache characteristics (severity, frequency, and mean disease duration) and other related data was obtained by completing a clinical checklist. Subsequently, brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed in the study and control groups, and each patient was then evaluated for hyperintense lesions.@*Results@#Of the 80 patients with migraine, 26 (32.5%) had silent hyperintense infarct lesions on MRI scan while the age-matched control group (n=20) did not found such abnormalities (32.5% vs 0%). The mean age of the patients with hyperintense foci was 38.9 years while those with no lesions was 31.3 years (p<0.001). Amongst the 65 hyperintense lesions detected in this study, both side supratentorial foci represented in 61.5% patients (n=40) in the whole brain, while 38.5% of the lesions (n=25) were found in subtentorial white matter. Cerebrovascular risk factors such as serum cholesterol, oral contraceptive use, and body mass index (BMI) were not significantly different in these two age groups (p>0.05). The lesions were found significantly more frequently in the female patients who experienced chronic migraine with aura and smoking (p=0.05).@*Conclusion@#Our study shows that disease duration has a key role in the formation of hyperintense brain lesions. Certain cerebrovascular risk factors such as serum cholesterol, oral contraceptive use and BMI, do not affect the presence or absence of such lesions, suggesting that the relationship between migraine and these lesions may be directly due to the effects of migraine itself.