NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Migraine patients who have frequent attacks or a long history of migraines have an increased risk of progressive brain damage according to findings on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers form the Netherlands in the current issue of Headache.

Previous research on brain imaging has shown that migraine patients are more likely to show "silent brain damage," or damage with no signs or symptoms, than are control subjects, the authors explain. But the brain sites that are affected have not been specified; only white matter hyperintensities have been investigated.

Dr. Nicole Schmitz and colleagues from Leiden University Medical Center sought to identify predilection sites of possible brain damage and various aspects of headaches in 28 female migraine patients. These results were compared with 28 similar females without migraine, the "control" group.

Several areas of the brain more frequently appeared abnormal in the women with migraine compared with the controls. A wide range of areas having different functions were involved, ranging from areas controlling higher cognitive functions to those controlling basic functions such as breathing and blood pressure. These included the frontal lobe, parietal lobes, brainstem, and cerebellum, the authors report.

Patients who had more than three migraine attacks per month also showed significantly more abnormalities than did those who had less than three attacks per month, the report indicates.

Moreover, the researchers note, individuals with more than 15 years of migraine attacks showed significantly worse changes than did those with less than 15 years of migraine attacks.

To more fully understand the causes and consequences of brain damage in migraine patients, more neuroimaging will be required to quantify brain abnormalities over time and under various conditions, such as before, after and during migraine attacks, the investigators point out.

SOURCE: Headache, July/August, 2008.

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