Dados do Trabalho

Título

Occurrence of silent lacunar infarcts detected by volumetric analyses of magnetic resonance imaging in women with migraine.

Resumo

Introduction: The development of neuroimaging techniques aroused interest in structural brain changes associated with migraine. Silent lacunar infarcts (SLI) are related to cerebral microvascular disease and frequently found in neuroimaging studies in migraine. Objective: To describe the occurrence of ILS in different groups of migraineurs and to characterize them in terms of location. Methods: Sixty patients were selected, without cerebrovascular risk factors, from the headache clinic of a tertiary neurology center. The volunteers were equally allocated into four groups according to the third International Classification of Headache Disorders: Episodic migraine without aura (MoA), Episodic migraine with aura (MA),Chronic migraine (CM) and control group (CG). All participants were submitted in a 3T MRI scan with volumetric protocols. The acquired images were analyzed by two independent neuroradiologists. Results: ILS were detected in only three volunteers, two of them from the MoA group and one from the MA group; no ILS were identified in the MC and CG. Only one lesion was identified in each patient. Two SLI were located in the frontal lobe and the other one in the occipital lobe. No infratentorial SLI were identified in our study. Conclusion: the occurrence of ILS was low in the sample, and presented in the anterior circulation. Prospective studies are needed to determine whether migraine is related to a higher risk of SLI formation.