Migrainous infarction: a rare and often overlooked diagnosis

ABSTRACT

Migraine is a neurological entity and a well-known independent risk factor for cerebral infarction, which mostly afflicts the young female population. Researching focal neurological signs in this subset of the population with the diagnosis of a neurological ischemic event should always take into account the migraine as the etiology or as an associated factor. The etiology of central nervous system (CNS) ischemia is considerable. Migraine, although rare, also may be included in this vast etiological range, which is called migrainous infarction. In this setting, the diagnostic criteria required for this diagnosis is extensive. Herein, we present the case of a female adolescent who submitted to the emergency facility complaining of diplopia, dysarthria, and imbalance, which started concomitantly with a migrainous crisis with aura­a challenging clinical case that required extensive research to address all possible differential diagnoses.