Klinische Monatsblätter für Augenheilkunde
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Klin Monbl Augenheilkd · Sep 2001
Review[Differential diagnosis of visual aura in migraine and epilepsy].
Visual phenomena like lightnings, disturbed contours of objects, or skotoma, can be due to ophthalmological diseases, but can also occur as symptoms generated by the central nervous system ("aura") in migraine or epilepsy. A subsequent hemicrania is considered as a hallmark of migraine, but in many cases does not allow for a certain distinction from postictal headaches in patients with focal epilepsy. A detailed analysis of the aura does, however, provide sufficient information for classifying the disorder as an aura in migraine or as a simple partial epileptic seizure in most cases. ⋯ Secondarily generalized seizures, however, may also occur in patients with migraine. Interictal and ictal EEG recordings can be important to prove an epileptic origin, but their sensitivity is low if ictal discharges remain limited to a small brain area. In rare cases, measurements of ictal cerebral perfusion can contribute to the differential diagnosis.