Department of Radiology, Michigan State University, 846 Service Road, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
Biomark Med. 2012 Aug;6(4):517-27. doi: 10.2217/bmm.12.35.
Migraine is a neurological disorder characterized by episodic head pain and visual cortical phenomena. The pathogenesis of migraine is unknown and remains to be determined. Bright light, flickering light and certain visual patterns can trigger a migraine attack, and visual cortical hyperexcitability has been hypothesized to be responsible. Interictally, the brain of migraineurs functions normally under general conditions but abnormally only under some specific conditions, such as the observation of stressful visual patterns, suggesting studying the brain function could provide insights in migraine pathophysiology. The functional MRI technique is unique in probing specific cortical area activation under various stimulation conditions and studying the abnormal cortical activation associated with functional disorders in migraine. In this perspective, we discuss how a novel functional MRI technique can be used to identify those migraineurs suffering visual cortical hyperexcitability, and its potential as a biomarker to evaluate and possibly predict effectiveness of migraine-preventive treatments.
偏头痛是一种以间歇性头痛和视觉皮层现象为特征的神经系统疾病。偏头痛的发病机制尚不清楚，有待确定。强光、闪烁光和某些视觉模式可能会引发偏头痛发作，并且假设视觉皮层过度兴奋是导致偏头痛发作的原因。在间歇期，偏头痛患者的大脑在一般情况下正常运作，但仅在某些特定情况下异常，例如观察有压力的视觉模式，这表明研究大脑功能可以为偏头痛的病理生理学提供深入的了解。功能磁共振成像技术在探测各种刺激条件下特定皮层区域的激活以及研究与偏头痛相关的功能障碍相关的异常皮层激活方面具有独特的优势。从这个角度来看，我们讨论了一种新的功能磁共振成像技术如何用于识别那些患有视觉皮层过度兴奋的偏头痛患者，以及它作为评估和可能预测偏头痛预防治疗效果的生物标志物的潜力。
