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Headache frequency associates with brain microstructure changes in patients with migraine without aura

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Abstract

Neuroimaging studies have implicated abnormal brain microstructure in episodic migraine (EM), but whether the pattern is altered during migraine chronification is not well known. Fifty-six patients with migraine without aura, including 39 EM patients and 17 chronic migraine (CM) patients, and 35 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled. Voxel-based morphometry analysis was performed to assess gray matter (GM) volume differences among groups and their association with clinical feature was examined. Compared with the HC group, both migraine groups showed increased GM volume in the periaqueductal grey matter (PAG) and decreased GM volume in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The left hippocampus/parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) volume of the HC group was smaller than that of the EM group, but was larger than that of the CM group. For the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), the EM group showed the smallest GM volume while the CM group had the largest volume. Higher headache frequency was associated with greater GM volume in the PAG and dlPFC, but was associated with smaller GM volume in the ACC and hippocampus/PHG across all patients. GM volume changes in regions involved in pain generation and control are potential neural mechanism underlying migraine, and are associated with migraine types and headache frequency.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China [grant number 81701669, 81701667]; the Nature Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [grant number BK20170368, BK20170367]; the Scientific Research Program of Jiangsu Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission [H201621].

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Author notes

  1. Yang Yu, Hongru Zhao and Lingling Dai contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, No.188 Shizi Road, Soochow, Jiangsu Province, 215000, China

    Yang Yu, Lingling Dai, Yunyan Su, Ximing Wang, Yalei Shang, Jun Ke & Chunhong Hu

  2. Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Soochow, Jiangsu Province, 215000, China

    Hongru Zhao & Can Chen

  3. Institute of Medical Imaging, Soochow University, Soochow, Jiangsu Province, 215000, China

    Jun Ke & Chunhong Hu

Authors
  1. Yang Yu
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  2. Hongru Zhao
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  3. Lingling Dai
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  4. Yunyan Su
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  5. Ximing Wang
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  6. Can Chen
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  7. Yalei Shang
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  8. Jun Ke
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  9. Chunhong Hu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jun Ke or Chunhong Hu.

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Conflict of interest

Yang Yu, Hongru Zhao, Lingling Dai, Yunyan Su, Ximing Wang, Can Chen, Yalei Shang, Jun Ke, Chunhong Hu declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the declaration of Helsinki, and were approved by the ethics committee of the first affiliated hospital of Soochow university.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Yu, Y., Zhao, H., Dai, L. et al. Headache frequency associates with brain microstructure changes in patients with migraine without aura. Brain Imaging and Behavior 15, 60–67 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00232-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00232-2

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