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This paper presents findings of blood flow to the brain during a migraine. The study is not well presented nor well substantiated and it confuses the most critical issues in the debate on the cause of migraine. This study did not find a reduced blood flow to the brain during a migraine despite reporting that it did. It is a classic case of the measurements in the study not supporting it’s “findings”.
Studies have previously proven there is a decreased blood flow to the brain during a migraine WITH AURA only. The Aura is visual and other neural disturbances that precede the migraine pain in only a small percentage of migraine sufferers. Migraine patients without aura do NOT display this decreased blood flow to the brain at all. The conclusion is obvious which is that the decreased blood flow is related to the aura, and not to the migraine.
In migraine with Aura, the decreased blood flow happens at the same time as the aura, and not at the same time as the migraine pain. Some patients suffer from Aura only and no pain, and a decreased blood flow can be seen in these patients too. The obvious and undeniable conclusion is that decreased blood flow to the brain is associated with Aura and not with migraine.
This paper is often falsely cited in the literature as evidence that there is reduced blood flow to the brain during migraine. There is no proof for that at all, and all evidence, especially that measured and sited in this paper, indicates the exact opposite.
MRI Rating of this study – Highly misleading.
View the original migraine observational study at this link: Bilateral Spreading Cerebral Hypoperfusion during Spontaneous Migraine Headache
- “A better understanding of the pathophysiologic features of spreading hypoperfusion would be of obvious clinical importance since migraine can sometimes lead to ischemic stroke and since stroke can sometimes be aggravated by or associated with the development of migraine”
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