The prevalence of cerebral damage varies with migraine type: a MRI study

Studies on the prevalence of MRI signal abnormalities in the brains of migraineurs have yielded controversial results. In order to provide further data on this issue we reviewed the MRI scans of 38 migraine patients without current neurologic symptoms (mean age 35.8 +/- 11.9 years). In addition, we compared the findings in those 24 migraineurs under 50 years without major cerebrovascular risk factors (mean age 30.1 +/- 9.0 years) to that in 14 headache and risk factor free volunteers (mean age 37.8 +/- 5.3 years). Overall, focal areas of hyperintense signal were seen in 15 (39%) patients. They were present on both proton density and T2-weighted spin-echo sequences. Lesion prevalence varied according to the type of headache (18% in migraine without aura, 53% in migraine with typical aura, 38% in basilar migraine). The subset of migraine patients under 50 years exhibited MRI signal abnormalities more than twice as often as controls (33% vs. 14%). Punctate white matter hyperintensities were the predominant finding and were seen in 10 of 15 individuals with MRI lesions. More striking signal abnormalities consisted of symmetrical areas of hyperintensity lateral to the posterior horns in two 24 year old patients and of extensive white matter damage with lacunar infarcts in a 59 year old woman. Our findings confirm a higher prevalence of MRI lesions in a mixed group of migraineurs than in headache free individuals. Signal abnormalities are most often non-specific, however their occurrence relates to the type of migraine.