Introduction: While examining patients with headache, abnormalities of unknown significance may quite frequently be encountered. In migraine small, subcortical, white matter abnormalities (WMAs) can be visualized by magnetic resonance images. The connection of these WMAs with the migraine is unclear, but some studies report the higher incidence of WMA in migraine.
Patients and method: The authors reviewed the MR scans of their new migraine patients younger than 55 years treated in period of 15 months, and compared the data with a control group.
Results: The prevalence of WMA was 10.3% among the migraineurs (78 patients without comorbidities such as hypertension, atherosclerotic heart disease, diabetes mellitus, autoimmune disorder or demyelinating disease) and it was 3.1% in the group of controls (32 persons younger then 55 years, and without migraine or other disease mentioned above). There were patients with WMA both below and above the age of 40; all of them were suffering from migraine without aura with 1 or more attack per month in variable times; none of them had smoked, the majority had not used oral contraceptive, and only a few of them used triptan or ergotamine.
Conclusion: The data presented here shows that there is a relationship between migraine and WMA. The association of WMA and the risk of following stroke is not cleared. There are well known studies analysing the prevalence of silent infarction too, but we need a long prospective study to answer this question exactly.