Bilateral occipital lobe infarction in acute migraine: clinical, neurophysiological, and neuroradiological study.

ABSTRACT

A woman having common migraine attacks coincident with an asymmetrical bilateral occipital lobe infarction that spared the brainstem and cerebellum underwent these studies serial electroencephalography, brainstem auditory, visual and somatosensory evoked potentials, magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and cerebral arteriography. The patient's vision improved greatly during a one-year follow-up. The absence of risk factors for stroke suggested that migraine caused the infarction in the posterior circulation network. The pathophysiological mechanisms of stroke in migraine remains speculative.