Related Experiment Videos
Characteristics of headache associated with intractable partial epilepsy
Alexei E Yankovsky1, Frederick Andermann, Andrea Bernasconi
1Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Montreal Neurological Hospital and Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Epilepsia
|August 3, 2005
Summary
Headache is common in epilepsy, particularly temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and extratemporal epilepsy (ETE). Preictal headache may indicate epileptic discharge, but the link between epilepsy and headache is not linked to pathology except in arteriovenous malformations.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Epileptology
- Headache Medicine
Background:
- Headache (HA) and epilepsy share a known association.
- Limited research exists on HA types and head sensations (HSens) in well-defined epilepsy populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze HA incidence in patients with pharmacologically intractable partial epilepsy.
- To identify predictive factors for HAs or migraine.
- To investigate correlations between HA/migraine and verified pathology.
Main Methods:
- Interviewed 100 consecutive epilepsy patients undergoing presurgical evaluation.
- Collected data on HA type, lateralization, localization, quality, and treatment outcomes.
- Examined pathologically verified cases for HA correlations.
Main Results:
- 47 patients reported periictal HAs (11 preictal, 44 postictal).
- 31 patients reported interictal HAs.
- 25 patients had migraine-like HA without aura, prevalent in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).
- No general pathology correlation, except in four arteriovenous malformation (AVM) cases.
Conclusions:
- Confirms focal epilepsy association with HAs, including migraine without aura, in TLE and extratemporal epilepsy (ETE).
- Preictal HA may relate to epileptic discharge and have lateralizing value.
- This association is not recognized by the International Headache Society (IHS) classification.
- HA/migraine presence is unrelated to epileptogenic pathology, barring AVMs.