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Yue Cao, PhD; K. M. A. Welch, MD; Sheena Aurora, MD; Eric M. Vikingstad, BS

Arch Neurol. 1999;56:548-554.

Background  Spreading depression of Leao has been hypothesized as the basis for the visual aura of the migraine attack, supported by cerebral blood flow measurements of spreading hypoperfusion. The early depolarizing or activation phase of experimental spreading depression, however, is associated with a transient but pronounced cerebral blood flow increase that precedes spreading hypoperfusion.

Objective  To study this early phase of the migraine attack, we investigated visually triggered attacks of headache and visual symptoms using a red-green checkerboard stimulus in patients with migraine.

Interventions  We studied occipital cortex activation during visual stimulation by measuring occipital cortex perfusion with functional magnetic resonance imaging–blood oxygenation level-dependent contrast in 10 patients with migraine with aura and 2 patients with migraine without aura and 6 healthy subjects.

Results  In 6 patients with migraine with aura and 2 patients with migraine without aura, their typical headache with (n=2) or without visual change was visually triggered at 7.3 minutes (mean time) after visual stimulation began. In 5 of these patients, the onset of headache or visual change, or both, was preceded by suppression of initial activation (mean onset time, 4.3 minutes; P<.001) The suppression slowly propagated into contiguous occipital cortex at a rate ranging from 3 to 6 mm/min. This neuronal suppression was accompanied by baseline contrast intensity increases that indicated vasodilatation and tissue hyperoxygenation.

Conclusions  We conclude that visually triggered headache and visual change in patients with migraine is accompanied by spreading suppression of initial neuronal activation and increased occipital cortex oxygenation. We postulate that this spreading suppression may be associated with initial activation of a migraine attack, independent of whether there are associated aura symptoms. We further postulate that there may be an association between vasodilation accompanying the initial stage of suppression and the induction of headache.

From the Headache Research Center and NMR Research Center, Department of Neurology, Henry Ford Health Sciences Center, Case Western Reserve University, Detroit, Mich.

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