title: Brain MRI in children with migraine: a controlled morphometric study.
abstract: Sixteen children and adolescents, aged 5-17 years, with migraine and 24 migraine-free age-matched healthy volunteers underwent brain MRI (1.0 T). Signal intensities of the brain, midsagittal and coronal diameters of the brainstem were quantitatively measured. General signal intensities did not differ between the groups. Compared to controls (17%), more migraine patients (50%) had high-signal foci on T2-weighted images. The diameters of the pons were greater in the migraine group (p = 0.016), although within the normal range. The diameters of the mesencephalon and the medulla oblongata did not differ between the groups, perhaps because they reach the adult size in early childhood in contrast to the pons, which continues to grow. Childhood migraine may be associated with slightly more than average growth of the pons. As the pathophysiology of migraine is still unclear, it might be worth studying with new MR methods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Hämäläinen
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Autti
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Salonen
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Santavuori
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology