Category: Neurology

If you are a woman between ages 20 and 44 years and suffer from migraine headaches you may have an increased risk for ischemic stroke. In this type of stroke the brain cells do not get enough oxygen, usually because either the vessel itself has narrowed-which may be a temporary condition-or the blood vessel is blocked by a clot or plaque. The lower level of oxygen causes cells to die. Symptoms, including migraines, vary according to the part of the brain affected. A family history of migraines also increases your risk for both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes even if you do not have them yourself. Hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a vessel …

Those who suffer cluster headaches may have non-painful warnings that the headaches are going to occur anywhere from several days to several weeks before their onset, according to a study done by researchers at the Universidad Nacional de Rosario in Argentina. Four patients in the study described various symptoms that preceded the onset of cluster headaches. The first patient’s symptoms were described as “eye discomfort,” a heightened state of anxiety, and a feeling of having “something inside my head.” The second patient complained of eye discomfort that was aggravated by reading or noise. The third patient reported feeling numbness in the left temple about a week before the onset of the …

When brain images are taken of people who experience primary headaches, they’re normal. This has led scientists to believe that headaches come from dysfunction rather than an abnormality in the structure of the brain. However, researchers from the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London are suggesting that this conclusion may have been made in error. Headaches not directly due to injury or disease are called primary headaches. Included in this category are tension, migraine, and cluster headaches. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) scans have consistently shown no structural abnormality in these people—until now. With a new type of imaging called voxel-based morphometry, British researchers have conducted …

More than 16 percent of patients with epilepsy conceal seizures from their doctors, according to a recent study. Previous research has reported that many people with epilepsy hide it to avoid social stigma and loss of employment or driving privileges. Researchers, from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and at King’s Fund in London, distributed two identical questionnaires to 111 adult patients who’d had epilepsy for an average of 21.5 years. The first questionnaire was completed with the general practitioner at an office visit, and the second was completed anonymously by the same patients about two weeks later. The researchers compared the two questionnaires for each patient. Forty-two patients …

If your epilepsy doesn’t respond to any anticonvulsant medications or treatments, perhaps you don’t have epilepsy after all. Researchers from the Manchester Heart Centre and the David Lewis Centre for Epilepsy in the United Kingdom believe many people diagnosed with treatment-resistant or atypical epilepsy may actually be suffering from a cardiovascular disorder. The study included 88 participants, ages 16 to 75, who experienced recurrent seizure-like episodes that had been diagnosed as epilepsy. Each was given tests designed to diagnose recurrent fainting. During these tests, they were monitored with electroencephalogram (EEG), which traces the electrical activity of the brain. In addition, some participants had a small cardiac-monitoring device implanted under the skin …

A conservative estimate is that more than 100,000 people with epilepsy in the United States alone have uncontrolled seizures and could benefit from surgery. Most of them have seizures that arise from a problem in a temporal lobe of the brain, and the most common operation to treat refractory epilepsy is anterior temporal lobectomy. This is a procedure with a proven record of efficacy, eliminating or greatly reducing the prevalence of seizures in trial after trial. A group of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth University decided to delve deeper into the impact of this procedure on the lives of patients in …