Role of Volumetric MRI Brain in Evaluation of Migraine

Migraine is a common condition that many people experience during their lives. Evolving data reported that migraine patients have increased risk of developing silent brain lesions, such as white matter lesions and volumetric changes in both grey and white matter found on MRI .

These changes have been first investigated with CT scans which reported cerebral edema, atrophy and ischemia . With the advent of MRI and high-resolution devices, the most commonly reported structural changes were white matter lesions .

Volumetric brain MRI is the tool segments and measures volumes of the key brain structures-hippocampus, ventricles and other structures-and compares the volumes to standard normal values based on age, gender and cranial volume. This information helps assess neurological conditions and neurodegenerative diseases .

• In migraine patients ,Volumetric MRI techniques allow better assessment of WMLs and may provide a different comprehension of structural aspects related to the migraine pathophysiology. The identification of migraineurs' brain structural alterations through non-invasive neuroimaging methods and the use of accessible and easy to-use software brings new perspectives on the assessment of the impact of this condition in central nervous system macro-architecture .
• In previous studies, structural brain changes in migraineurs were assessed by an automated segmentation using (Free Surfer) method .

In our study, we aim to investigate these total and segmental structural changes of brain volume in migraine patients; as well as white matter lesions, in comparison to healthy controls, and in patients with episodic migraine in comparison to chronic type of migraine using another automated tissue segmentation (Vol brain) method.