Evaluation of migraine without aura patients by visual evoked potentials with different spatial frequencies

Abstract

Objective: The objective of our study was to investigate changes in pattern reversal visual evoked potentials (PVEPs) of migraine without aura patients recorded with two different check sizes (15’ and 62’) in accordance with International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision (ISCEV) standards during the interictal period. 
 Materials and Methods: Patients' demographic data were documented from headache diaries of patients, such as duration of disease, headache characteristics, the number of attacks in a month, the average duration of attacks, complaints accompanying headache, mean severity of headache according to visual analog scale. Twenty migraine patients without aura and 14 healthy volunteers were examined with PVEPs recorded with two different check-sizes (15’ and 62’). The stimulation sequences were randomized both for the check-size of checkerboard and the side of stimulation (right-15', right-62', left-15', left-62'). The latency of N75, P100 and peak-to-peak amplitude of N75-P100 
 were analyzed. 
 Results: There were no statistical difference between healthy subjects and migraine without aura patients in the means of latency and amplitude of PVEPs results for both check-sizes (p>0,05). 
 Conclusion: In migraine patients without aura, we did not detect magnocellular pathway dysfunction by PVEPs with different spatial frequencies. Studies on larger patient groups and combining PVEPs with psychophysical tests are needed.