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Reduced neurovascular coupling of the visual network in migraine patients with aura as revealed with arterial spin labeling MRI: is there a demand-supply mismatch behind the scenes?

Silvestro M, Esposito F, De Rosa AP, Orologio I, Trojsi F, Tartaglione L, García-Polo P, Tedeschi G et al.

The journal of headache and pain, 2024

25 participants · 5 citations

Abstract

Background: Although neuroimaging investigations have consistently demonstrated that "hyperresponsive" and "hyperconnected" visual cortices may represent the functional substrate of cortical spreading depolarization in patients with migraine with aura, the mechanisms which underpin the brain "tendency" to ignite the cortical spreading depolarization and, consequently, aura phenomenon are still matter of debate. Considering that triggers able to induce aura phenomenon constrain brain to increase global (such as physical activity, stressors and sleep abnormalities) or local (such as bright light visual stimulations) energy demand, a vascular supply unable to satisfy the increased energy requirement could be hypothesized in these patients.

Methods: Twenty-three patients with migraine with aura, 25 patients with migraine without aura and 20 healthy controls underwent a 3-Tesla MRI study. Cerebral blood flow and local functional connectivity (regional homogeneity) maps were obtained and registered to the MNI space where 100 cortical regions were derived using a functional local-global normative parcellation. A surrogate estimate of the regional neurovascular coupling for each subject was obtained at each parcel from the correlation coefficient between the z-scored ReHo map and the z-scored cerebral blood flow maps.

Results: A significantly higher regional cerebral blood flow across the visual cortex of both hemispheres (i.e. fusiform and lingual gyri) was detected in migraine…

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