Abnormalitites of Visual Evoked Potential in Migraine Patients

Background: Visual evoked potential (VEP) is regarded as a useful, reliable and non-invasive technique for the diagnosis of lesions in the optic pathway.  This technique was used to investigate visual function in migraine.   Materials and Methods: 53 migraine patients (27 migraine cases with aura and 26 common migraine cases) and 55 controls were prospectively enrolled in this study.  Visual evoked potential using the pattern reversal stimuli was performed in all patients and controls, and abnormalities of visual evoked potential were evaluated. Results: In subjects with classic migraine mean latencies of the P100 wave was increased by 6.7% (P<0.05) compared with controls. Common migraine subjects did not show significant difference with controls in regard to P100 latency (P>0.05).  Also no significant difference was observed in P100-N140 peak-to-peak amplitude between the patients and controls. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate subtle neuronal damage within the visual system of migraine patients which may be due to repeated transient ischemia experienced during the aura or more likely as a constitutional change.