Benign migraine-like syndrome with CSF pleocytosis in children.

Four children with symptoms consistent with complicated migraine had CSF pleocytosis, in three cases lymphocytic and in the fourth polymorphonuclear. In one case the CSF abnormality was found during two separate attacks of complicated migraine. On the basis of the 23 cases reported in the literature and these four personal cases, the authors conclude that, as a rule, pleocytosis is a secondary phenomenon of an attack of complicated migraine. However, in exceptional cases an infectious disease might produce both a migraine attack and CSF pleocytosis.