Visual symptoms in epilepsy and migraine: localization and patterns.
OBJECTIVE
To clarify differences in the localization of visual symptom patterns in epilepsy and migraine, we analyzed patient-generated illustrations of visual symptoms.


METHODS
Patients were asked to draw their visual symptoms from memory using marker pens of 12 colors. All patients illustrated their symptoms on a template sheet representing the binocular visual field. We analyzed a total of 67 illustrations from 54 patients aged 6-40 years: 28 with epilepsy, 23 with migraine, and 3 with migraine-epilepsy syndrome.


RESULTS
With respect to positive visual manifestations, those of epileptic patients were predominantly centrally localized (20 of 24, 83%), whereas those of migraine patients were predominantly peripherally localized (10 of 13, 77%) (p < 0.0001). With respect to negative visual symptoms, those in epilepsy were commonly diffuse (10 of 14, 71%) compared with those in migraine, which were peripheral (9 of 12, 75%) (p < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Results of this study suggest that the localization of visual symptoms differs between epilepsy and migraine.
Muranaka
H
H
Department of Pediatrics, Hirosaki University School of Medicine, Zaifu-cho 5, Hirosaki 036-8562, Japan. muranaka@cc.hirosaki-u.ac.jp
Fujita
H
H
Goto
A
A
Osari
S I
SI
Kimura
Y
Y
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D015897:Comorbidity; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D014794:Visual Fields