Cerebral blood flow in migraine with aura: a transcranial Doppler sonography study

Transcranial Doppler sonography examination was performed on 44 patients with migraine with aura and 88 controls. All patients were investigated in headache-free periods and 10 of them also during a migraine attack. During the headache-free period a not significant increase of mean flow velocity in patients compared to controls was obtained. The pulsatility index (PI) mean values were also higher in patients than in controls and the differences were significant in the MCA (p < 0.05). No difference between right and left side was observed. During the attack the mean flow velocity (MFV) decreased in all arteries but the decrease was significant only in MCA and ACA (p < 0.05). The mean PI increased in all arteries but not significantly. These variations were observed both on the headache and contralateral side. Nevertheless, the MFV decrease in all arteries was observed in four patients only. In four patients the MFV decrease was found in the anterior arteries and the MFV increase in the posterior arteries, while in two patients the MFV increase was observed both in the anterior and posterior arteries. The correlation between the variations of MFV values during the attacks and the time interval from the onset of attacks showed that the PCA and BA flow velocities were increased in patients examined between 0.5 and 3 hours, while an increase in MCA and ACA flow velocities were observed only in patients examined after 1.5 hours.