• Xiaoyan Bai, Wei Wang, Xueyan Zhang, Zhangxuan Hu, Xue Zhang, Yingkui Zhang, Hefei Tang, Yaqing Zhang, Xueying Yu, Ziyu Yuan, Peng Zhang, Zhiye Li, Xun Pei, Yonggang Wang, and Binbin Sui.
• Tiantan Neuroimaging Center for Excellence, China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing Tiantan Hospital and Beijing Neurosurgical Institute, Capital Medical University, No.119 South Fourth Ring West Road, Fengtai District, Beijing, 100070, China.
• J Headache Pain. 2023 Oct 18; 24 (1): 138138.

BackgroundAmygdala, an essential element of the limbic system, has served as an important structure in pain modulation. There is still a lack of clarity about altered cerebral perfusion of amygdala in migraine. This study aimed to investigate the perfusion variances of bilateral amygdala in episodic migraine (EM) and chronic migraine (CM) using multi-delay pseudo-continuous arterial spin-labeled magnetic resonance imaging (pCASL-MRI).MethodsTwenty-six patients with EM, 55 patients with CM (33 CM with medication overuse headache (MOH)), and 26 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) were included. All participants underwent 3D multi-delay pCASL MR imaging to obtain cerebral perfusion data, including arrival-time-corrected cerebral blood flow (CBF) and arterial cerebral blood volume (aCBV). The CBF and aCBV values in the bilateral amygdala were compared among the three groups. Correlation analyses between cerebral perfusion parameters and clinical variables were performed.ResultsCompared with HC participants, patients with CM were found to have increased CBF and aCBV values in the left amygdala, as well as increased CBF values in the right amygdala (all P < 0.05). There were no significant differences of CBF and aCBV values in the bilateral amygdala between the HC and EM groups, the EM and CM groups, as well as the CM without and with MOH groups (all P > 0.05). In patients with CM, the increased perfusion parameters of bilateral amygdala were positively correlated with MIDAS score after adjustments for age, sex, and body mass index (BMI).ConclusionHyperperfusion of bilateral amygdala might provide potential hemodynamics evidence in the neurolimbic pain network of CM.© 2023. Springer-Verlag Italia S.r.l., part of Springer Nature.

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