Skip to main content

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Neurol.
Sec. Headache and Neurogenic Pain
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1422313
This article is part of the Research Topic Investigations of neural processes underlying normal pain perception, its regulation, and alterations in aberrant pain conditions View all articles

Dynamic Fluctuations in Brain Iron Content During Migraine Attacks: Insights from R2* Relaxometry and Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Provisionally accepted

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    There is evidence that iron metabolism may play a role in the underlying pathophysiolocical mechanism of migraine. Studies using R2* (=1/T2*) relaxometry, a common MRI-based iron mapping technique, have reported increased R2* values in various brain structures of migraineurs, indicating iron accumulation compared to healthy controls. The aim of the study was to investigate whether there are short-term changes in R2* during a migraine attack. Therefore quantitative MRI, including R2* relaxometry and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), was acquired from a migraine patient on 21 consecutive days, including migraine-free days and days with a migraine attack. Statistical analysis was performed using R, the Shapiro-Wilk test, the t-test and Mann Whitney U test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) or Kruskal-Wallis test, depending on the distribution of the data. P value <0.05 was considered significant. Significant difference in R2* was found between the left and right hemispheres during a migraine attack. An increase in R2* was observed in the left hemisphere, whereas in the right hemisphere R2* was found to decrease. In the left cerebral white matter, R2* increased by 1.8% (p = 0.021), in the right cerebral white matter, R2* anisotropy decreased by 17% (p = 0.011) during a migraine attack. Data Conclusion Our study showed a decrease and increase in iron content during the migraine cycle. Furthermore, during a migraine attack, white matter iron content increased, accompanied by a decrease in anisotropic tissue components, suggesting additional changes in vascular components.

    Keywords: migraine cycle, Pain processing, Brain iron, R2* relaxometry, quantitative MRI

    Received: 23 Apr 2024; Accepted: 31 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Birkl, Filippi, Steiger, Frank, Gizewski and Broessner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Vera Filippi, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.