Transitory isolated, global blindness and headache the possible relationship to migraine.
Four headache patients, 3 females and 1 male, are described, who all have experienced episodes with complete transitory blindness; in 3 it was bilateral, in the 4th there was asymmetry, the vision nevertheless also being markedly reduced globally in the other eye. Two of the patients got the visual disturbance far ahead of the headache episodes. These may or may not coincide with the visual disturbance. After some time, the visual disturbances in 3 of the patients have changed character, in that a unilateral transitory blindness or homonymous fortification spectra have supervened. In the last one they stopped altogether 5-6 years ago. The relationship of such blindness to migraine ("retinal", "basilar", etc.), TIA and even possible epilepsy is intricate. These four patients may not even suffer from the same condition.
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D001766:Blindness / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D013997:Time Factors