Repeated episodes of focal cerebral ischemia in a patient with mitral valve prolapse and migraine headache

Abstract

Migraine is episodic, paroxysmal disorder where the headache represents the central symptom and is followed with different combinations of neurological gastrointestinal and vegetative changes. Not until the diagnostic procedures were developed, ischemic lesions were verified even in the patients with ordinary migraine. This is a report of a patient with migraine headache followed twice by verified episodes of temporary ischemic attacks and verified focal ischemic lesion of cerebral parenchyma. The mitral valve prolapse was also detected. This all imposed the administration of combined prophylactic antimigrainous and anticoagulant therapy as an imperative because of the risk of the development of repeated ischemia of cerebral tissue. This association also confirmed an opinion that migraine is a wider disorder with the dominant dysfunction of limbic system.

Keywords

• brain ischemia
• migraine
• mitral valve prolapse
• excitatory amino acids