Epilepsy and Migraine: Neuroimaging and Neuropathophysiological Parallels

Abstract

Objective. The aim of our study was the comparison of the microstructure and neurometabolic disorders of the brain, as well as neuropathophysiological features of patients suffering from epilepsy and migraine. Methods. We investigated 60 patients suffering from migraine, aged 16–42 years (mean age was 29.30 ± 0.52 years) and 60 — with epilepsy, aged 18–51 years (mean age was 28.20 ± 0.98 years). 60 patients with migraine and 60 with epilepsy underwent diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging. 18 migraine and 28 epilepsy patients underwent proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. All patients were examined using the computer electroencephalography. Migraine and epilepsy were diagnosed according to international guidelines. Results. The obtained data indicate not only a neuron tissue lesion in patients suffering from migraine and epilepsy but, probably, do not exclude a feedback in this event hierarchy and the deafferentation probability conditioned by a loss of hippocampal bonds. This state is confirmed by decreasing tracts in limbic zones that also plays an important role in the damage of brain extrahippocampal parts.Thus, hippocampus is one of the main structures in disintegrating neuronal combinatorics and forms peculiarities of clinical manifestations of paroxysmal states, involving these or those brain areas at these two diseases.