The Analysis of PR-VEP in Migraine with Visual Aura and Common Migraine

Abstract

The mecanisms in migraine pathogenesis cause some neurophsyologic changes at occipital lobe and visual cortex. Migraine with visual aura is the most common type of thissitutation in migraine with visual aura, the possibility of identifying the precise moment of the start of the attack makes the more precise correlation among the clinical, physiological, and biochemical data. On the basis of this knowledge, we employed the method of measuring Pattern Visual Evoked Potentials (PR-VEP) ta detect the presence of possible modifications of visual cortex response in migraine with and without visual aura Seventeen patients with migraine with visual aura, aged between 16 to 55 years ( 12 women and 5 men) and seventeen patients with common migraine aged 17-47 years (12 women and 5 men) were studied by PR-VEP. The control group consisted of an 23 healthy subjects, comparable for age. The results were estimated with ANOVA, Posthoc student Newman-Keuls and chi-square tests. The most important finding in our study is that migraine patients with visual aura have significantly longer P 100 latency both after right (p=0.004) and left (p=0.005) monocular stimulations, higher amplitudies (p=0.034) and larger area (p=0.0001) of wave components than the subjects of control group after right monocular stimulation. There was not a difference among groups from the point of view of N75 latency N145 latencies were significantly longer than controls (left: p<0.001, right: p<0.001) These modifications of the PR-VEP could indicate that there are some special methabolic conditions and abnormalities of neuromediators during and between attacks. We consider that the method of PR-VEP is an useful instrument for investigation of migraine patients with visual prodroma.