Altered brain structural topological properties and its correlations with clinical characteristics in episodic migraine without aura.

Abstract

To investigate the topological alterations of the whole-brain white matter structural networks in episodic migraine (EM) without aura. Forty-five EM patients without aura and 35 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were registered, and underwent diffusion tensor MRI acquisition at interictal. Graph theory-based analyses were then performed for the characterization of brain structural network properties. Pearson correlation analysis was performed on each network metric between the EM patients and healthy controls. The EM patients exhibited abnormal global network properties and local network topology that were characterized by more strongly integrated, more efficient, and faster information transferring. These network differences were widely located in the occipital, temporal, and parietal regions. Additionally, the local efficient of global parameters showed positive correlation with visual analogue scale, and along with prolonging disease duration, the nodal efficiency would be reduced, and the nodal shortest path length would be increased. Headache Impact Test version 6 scores have negative correlation with the nodal shortest path length, and positive correlations with the nodal efficiency. The results indicate that EM patients had aberrant topological structure and make a better understanding of structural connectivity in EM; it may provide imaging evidence for clinical study of migraine pathogenesis.