Laboratory for advanced analysis of neuroimages, Faculty of Physical Chemistry, University of Belgrade, Serbia.
Laboratory for advanced analysis of neuroimages, Faculty of Physical Chemistry, University of Belgrade, Serbia.
Neuroimage Clin. 2019;22:101714. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2019.101714. Epub 2019 Feb 4.
The brainstem plays a significant role in migraine pathogenesis, but a relationship between volume alterations of brainstem subregions and migraine aura characteristics has not been sufficiently investigated. The aim of this study is to compare the volume of the brainstem, and its subregions, between patients with a migraine with aura (MwA) and healthy controls (HC), and also to correlate characteristics of MwA and the volume of the brainstem subregions.
Forty-two MwA and 42 HCs, balanced by sex and age, were selected for this study. Total brainstem volume changes as well as volume changes in the pons, medulla, midbrain and the superior cerebellar peduncles were investigated in MwA relative to HCs. In addition, the relationships between brainstem subregions and aura characteristics (aura duration, the frequency of the aura, occurrence of somatosensory and dysphasic aura, duration of a headache, intensity of headache pain and disease duration) were explored in MwA.
MwA patients had a larger brainstem volume relative to HCs (25,941.35 ± 2559.2 mm vs. 25,179.32 ± 2019.1 mm; p = .008), as well as the midbrain and pons (6155.98 ± 565.7 mm vs. 5964.22 ± 457.0 mm, p = .002; 15,105.13 ± 1765.5 mm vs. 14,539.89 ± 1408.4 mm, p = .007, respectively). Total brainstem volume, as well as volumes of brainstem subregions, were not significantly correlated to the MwA characteristics.
The results of this study reveal that a migraine with aura is associated with a larger volume of the brainstem with a particular involvement of the midbrain and pons.
脑干在偏头痛发病机制中起重要作用，但脑干亚区体积变化与偏头痛先兆特征之间的关系尚未得到充分研究。本研究旨在比较偏头痛伴先兆（MwA）患者与健康对照（HC）之间脑干及其亚区的体积，并分析 MwA 特征与脑干亚区体积之间的相关性。
本研究纳入 42 例 MwA 患者和 42 例性别和年龄匹配的 HC。在 MwA 中，我们研究了总脑干体积变化以及桥脑、延髓、中脑和上小脑脚的体积变化。此外，我们还探讨了脑干亚区与先兆特征（先兆持续时间、先兆频率、体感先兆和语言障碍先兆的发生、头痛持续时间、头痛强度和疾病持续时间）之间的关系。
与 HC 相比，MwA 患者的脑干体积更大（25941.35±2559.2mm 比 25179.32±2019.1mm；p=0.008），中脑和桥脑体积也更大（6155.98±565.7mm 比 5964.22±457.0mm，p=0.002；15105.13±1765.5mm 比 14539.89±1408.4mm，p=0.007）。总脑干体积以及脑干亚区体积与 MwA 特征均无显著相关性。
本研究结果表明，偏头痛伴先兆与脑干体积增大有关，特别是中脑和桥脑受累。
