(ANSA) - ROME, NOVEMBER 23 - For the first time, a new study has identified enlarged perivascular spaces (regions at the base of the brain filled with fluid and used for the disposal of cerebral 'waste') in the brains of migraine sufferers.
Furthermore, in correspondence with these spaces in the migraine brain, structural lesions of the white matter, i.e. of the nerve fibers, also emerged.
The results of the study will be presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
"In people with chronic migraine and episodic migraine without aura, significant changes are observed in the perivascular spaces of a brain region called the centrum semiovale," said study co-author Wilson Xu, Ph.D., Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
"These changes have never been reported before."
The study involved 10 patients with chronic migraine, 10 with episodic migraine without aura, and 5 healthy control subjects.
The experts used a high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging capable of viewing details such as perivascular spaces, fluid-filled areas bordering the blood vessels of the brain.
According to experts, the enlargement of these spaces hints at the possibility of anomalies in the brain's molecular waste disposal system in patients with migraine.
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