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CASE REPORT article

Front. Neurol.

Sec. Headache and Neurogenic Pain

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1579203

Efficacy of anti-calcitonin gene-related peptide monoclonal antibodies in hemiplegic migraine: A case report and review of literature

Provisionally accepted
  • Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary

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

    Hemiplegic migraine (HM) is a rare subtype of migraine with aura characterized by transient unilateral motor weakness during attacks. Although monoclonal antibodies (mABs) targeting the calcitonin generelated peptide (CGRP) pathway have shown efficacy in migraine prevention, their role in HM remains largely unexplored, since these patients are generally excluded from randomized clinical trials aimed at developing migraine preventive drugs. We present a case of a middle-aged woman with chronic migraine and recurrent hemiplegic episodes treated with fremanezumab. After 11 months of monthly 225 mg subcutaneous fremanezumab injections, the patient experienced a substantial reduction in monthly headache days, aura episodes, and symptom severity, without safety concerns. This case adds to the emerging evidence supporting CGRP mABs as a potential therapeutic option for HM. Further research is needed to elucidate their precise mechanism and determine their efficacy in broader HM populations.

    Keywords: 4032, Debrecen, Móricz Zsigmond street 22, Hungary ORCID: 0009-0009-3382-8852 migraine, Hemiplegic migraine, CGRP, Monoclonal antibody, Fremanezumab

    Received: 18 Feb 2025; Accepted: 19 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Héja and Oláh. 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: Máté Héja, Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary

    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.

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