European journal of neurology : the official journal of the European Federation of Neurological Societies
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In 92 migraine patients and 44 healthy control subjects we recorded regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) with single photon emission computerized tomography and (133) Xe inhalation or with i.v. (99m) Tc-HMPAO. Migraine patients were studied interictally. A quantitated analysis of right-left asymmetry indices in a fixed set of regions of interest was compared with the normal asymmetry indices in the healthy controls. ⋯ Two conclusions emerged: (1) visual evaluation of interictal migraine rCBF images is insufficient to pick up abnormalities; (2) almost 50% of the migraine sufferers had abnormal rCBF/asymmetries. However, these are discrete compared with those typically seen during the aura phase of a migraine attack. One explanation to the patchy rCBF patterns might be that they reflect interictal cerebrovascular dysregulation which might to be a common feature in both types of migraine.