Back to brain lesions

There has been concern over the past few years about the link between migraine and brain lesions.  I wrote about the study back in early 2004 that demonstrated that people with migraine with aura had some damage to brain tissue, known as lesions.  This is not uncommon damage, but the fact that there were more lesions in migraineurs was cause for concern.  It may begin to explain the link between migraine and some other problems such as stroke.  It may also indicate that migraine causes some kind of cumulative damage.

A recent study reported on by Dr. Todd Rozen in the June issue of Cephalalgia tells a more positive story.  Brain lesions shown in one MRI scan were completely gone 16 days later.  This is only one case, of course, but it’s encouraging.

Brain lesions are normal and not usually a cause for concern.  However, there are still a lot of questions – why do those with migraine with aura have more?  And even if they are benign, that doesn’t discount other evidence that damage from migraine may be cumulative – it may cause damage over time.

Thanks to Dr Alexander Mauskop of the New York Headache Center for pointing out this study.  Dr Mauskop emailed me a few days ago to tell me about his new blog, which I will shortly add to our headache/migraine blog aggregator.  We know Dr Mauskop from his book, a favourite of mine and of our visitors.