Evaluation of headache intensity in migrainous patients with visual handicap through the tactile analogical scale (TAS)

Abstract

The tactile analogue scale (TAS) was elaborated to be used in blind subjects or those who can not use the vision during their crises. The objective of this study was to characterize, from TAS, the architecture of migraine attacks in subjects with visual disability. For that, 11 migrainous with visual disturb (MVD) subjects were studied and 22 migrainous subjects with no visual disability as a control group. All patients fulfilled the criteria for migraine and the patients of the group studied showed visual acuteness less than 20/200. To evaluate the results, the patients of the group MVD were subdivide within two groups, according to their visual acuteness: subgroup A subjects with subnormal vision and subgroup B amaurotic ones. In subgroup A measurement 46 attacks with average of the migraine attacks of the 56.50 mm, in the subgroup B 45 attacks with average of the 59.58mm and in the control group 92 attacks with average of the 49.88mm. When subgroup B and control group were compared there was a significant statistic difference (p=0.022). Through these outcomes we can observe that the migrainous subjects with no visual afference show a higher pain intensity during the migraine crises comparing to those subjects with no visual handicap. The study suggests that, as in other forms of sensibility, the total visual loss can also interfere in the nociceptive control of the pain during the migraine attacks.

Keywords

• analogue scale
• intensity
• migraine
• pain
• visual acuteness