Migraine/Headache

Resting state (RS) functional connectivity (FC) abnormalities of brain networks involved in pain- and multisensory processing have been disclosed in adult-migraine patients. We explored RS FC of large-scale brain networks in pediatric-migraine patients and their correlation with patients' clinical characteristics. RS functional MRI data was acquired from 13 pediatric-migraine patients and 14 age- and sex-matched controls. Intra- and inter-network RS FC differences between patients and controls were evaluated. Correlations between RS FC abnormalities and patients' clinical characteristics were also assessed. Compared to controls, pediatric-migraine patients had a decreased RS FC of the left parieto-occipital junction of the default mode network (DMN) and left-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the executive control network (ECN). They also experienced an increased RS FC of the right frontopolar cortex of the right frontoparietal network (FPN) and the right-middle occipital gyrus of the secondary visual network. A significant stronger connectivity between the ECN and primary visual network and between the right FPN and primary sensorimotor, primary visual and auditory networks were found in migraine patients compared to controls. A significant weaker connectivity between the DMN and right FPN was revealed in migraineurs compared to controls. No correlation was found between intra- and inter-network RS FC abnormalities and patients' clinical characteristics. Pediatric-migraine patients harbor significant RS FC abnormalities in brain networks involved in multisensory processing and in the cognitive control of pain. An early dysregulation of multisensory processing, including pain, might represent a phenotypic biomarker of the disease.

The King-Devick test is a timed rapid number naming task that involves complex cerebral functions. The objective of this pilot exploratory study is to determine whether there is a difference in the King-Devick test during a migraine attack compared to the interictal phase.

Migraine is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by attacks of moderate or severe headache accompanying functionally and structurally maladaptive changes in brain. As the headache days/month is often measured by patient self-report and tends to be overestimated than actually experienced, the possibility of using neuroimaging data to predict migraine attack frequency is of great interest. To identify neuroimaging features that could objectively evaluate patients' headache days, a total of 179 migraineurs were recruited from two data center with one dataset used as the training/test cohort and the other used as the validating cohort. The guidelines for controlled trials of prophylactic treatment of chronic migraine in adults were used to identify the frequency of attacks and migraineurs were divided into low (MOl) and high (MOh) subgroups. Whole-brain functional connectivity was used to build multivariate logistic regression models with model iteration optimization to identify MOl and MOh. The best model accurately discriminated MOh from MOl with AUC of 0.91 (95%CI [0.86, 0.95]) in the training/test cohort and 0.79 in the validating cohort. The discriminative features were mainly located within the limbic lobe, frontal lobe, and temporal lobe. Permutation tests analysis demonstrated that the classification performance of these features was significantly better than chance. Furthermore, the indicator of functional connectivity had a higher odds ratio than behavioral variables with implementing a holistic regression analysis. The current findings suggested that the migraine attack frequency could be distinguished by using machine-learning algorithms, and highlighted the role of brain functional connectivity in revealing underlying migraine-related neurobiology.

Migraine attacks are unpredictable, precluding preemptive interventions and leading to lack of control over individuals' lives. Although there are neurophysiological changes 24-48 hours before migraine attacks, so far, they have not been used in patients' management. This study evaluates the applicability and the ability to identify pre-attack changes of daily "at home" electroencephalography obtained with a portable system for migraine patients.

We aimed to examine arterial stiffness and vitamin K2 status in migraine subjects by comparison to controls.

Studies point to an increased hereditary risk of cluster headache. HCRTR2 gene rs2653349 and ADH4 gene rs1800759 polymorphisms have been associated with cluster headache susceptibility. Also, GNB3 rs5443 polymorphism, associated with increased signal transduction via GPCRs, seems to influence triptan treatment response. DNA from 114 cluster headache patients and 570 non-related controls, representing a general Southeastern European Caucasian (SEC) population, was extracted from buccal swabs and genotyped using real-time PCR. Gene distribution for the rs2653349 was GG = 79.8%, GA = 18.4%, and AA = 1.8% for patients and GG = 79.1%, GA = 19.1%, and AA = 1.8% for controls. The frequency of the mutated A allele was 11.0% for patients and 11.3% for controls. The frequencies for rs5443 were CC = 44.7%, CT = 44.7%, and TT = 10.5% for patients and CC = 43.9%, CT = 42.6%, and TT = 13.5% for controls. The frequency of the mutated T allele was 32.9% for patients and 34.8% for controls. A 2.7-fold more frequent appearance of the mutated T allele was observed in patients with better triptan treatment response, although not statistically significant. For rs1800759, the frequencies were CC = 36.0%, CA = 43.0%, and AA = 21.0% for patients and CC = 34.0%, CA = 50.2%, and AA = 15.8% for controls. The frequency of the mutated A allele was 42.5% and 40.9% for patients and controls, respectively. The mutated T allele of GNB3 rs5443 polymorphism was more prevalent in patients with better triptan treatment response, indicating a possible trend of association between this polymorphism and triptan treatment response in SEC population. According to our observation, no association of HCRTR2 rs2653349 and ADH4 rs1800759 polymorphisms and cluster headache in SEC population could be documented.

Although migraine is the second most disabling condition worldwide, there is poor awareness of it.