Related Experiment Videos
Migraine genetics
Esther Kors1, Joost Haan, Michel Ferrari
1Department of Neurology, K5Q, Leiden University Medical Centre, PO Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands.
Current Pain and Headache Reports
|May 2, 2003
Abstract:
The genetics of migraine is a fascinating and moving research area. Familial hemiplegic migraine, a rare subtype of migraine with a Mendelian pattern of inheritance, is caused by mutations in the chromosome 19 CACNA1A gene in approximately 75% of the families. The finding of mutations in an ionchannel subunit defines migraine as a channelopathy (eg, epilepsy). The genetics of the more frequent variants, migraine with and without aura, is more complex. Several loci have been studied in families and case-control studies, but need to be confirmed.