Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2006 May;77(5):686-9.
doi: 10.1136/jnnp.2005.080002.

Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging at 3.0 tesla shows subtle cerebral grey matter abnormalities in patients with migraine

M A Rocca  1 , A Ceccarelli, A Falini, P Tortorella, B Colombo, E Pagani, G Comi, G Scotti, M Filippi
Affiliations

Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging at 3.0 tesla shows subtle cerebral grey matter abnormalities in patients with migraine

M A Rocca et al. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2006 May.

Abstract

Background and objective: Diffusion tensor (DT) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has the potential to disclose subtle abnormalities in the brain of migraine patients. This ability may be increased by the use of high field magnets. A DT MRI on a 3.0 tesla scanner was used to measure the extent of tissue damage of the brain normal appearing white (NAWM) and grey matter in migraine patients with T2 visible abnormalities.

Methods: Dual echo, T1 weighted and DT MRI with diffusion gradients applied in 32 non-collinear directions were acquired from 16 patients with migraine and 15 sex and age matched controls. Lesion load on T2 weighted images was measured using a local thresholding segmentation technique, and brain atrophy assessed on T1 weighted images using SIENAx. Mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy histograms of the NAWM and mean diffusivity histograms of the grey matter were also derived.

Results: Brain atrophy did not differ between controls and patients. Compared with healthy subjects, migraine patients had significantly reduced mean diffusivity histogram peak height of the grey matter (p=0.04). No diffusion changes were detected in patients' NAWM. In migraine patients, no correlation was found between T2 weighted lesion load and brain DT histogram derived metrics, whereas age was significantly correlated with grey matter mean diffusivity histogram peak height (p=0.05, r=-0.52).

Conclusions: DT MRI at high field strength discloses subtle grey matter damage in migraine patients, which might be associated with cognitive changes in these patients.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: none declared

References

    1. Sotak C H. The role of diffusion tensor imaging in the evaluation of ischemic brain injury—a review. NMR Biomed 200215561–569. - PubMed
    1. Rocca M A, Colombo B, Inglese M.et al A diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging study of brain tissue from patients with migraine. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 200374501–503. - PMC - PubMed
    1. O'Sullivan M, Summers P E, Jones D K.et al Normal‐appearing white matter in ischemic leukoaraiosis: a diffusion tensor MRI study. Neurology 2001572307–2310. - PubMed
    1. Chabriat H, Pappata S, Poupon C.et al Clinical severity in CADASIL related to ultrastructural damage in white matter: in vivo study with diffusion tensor MRI. Stroke 1999302637–2643. - PubMed
    1. Cercignani M, Bozzali M, Iannucci G.et al Magnetisation transfer ratio and mean diffusivity of normal appearing white and grey matter from patients with multiple sclerosis. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 200170311–317. - PMC - PubMed