Testing of the Excitability of a Peripheral Nerve in Migraine Patients

Disorders in the functioning of ion channels, especially of Na+ channels, are at present suggested to play a role in the pathogenesis of migraine. Thus, migraine can be considered a channelopathy. The following question, however, remains open: Are such disorders related exclusively to the brain or also to the peripheral nervous system? In our study, we compared the excitability characteristics of the n. medianus in migraine patients and control-group subjects and also tried to find possible differences between subgroups of the patients suffering from migraine with or without aura. For this purpose, we measured the strength-duration time constant and rheobase using stimulation of the above nerve and EMG recording from the m. abductor pollicis brevis. We found no statistically significant differences in the indices of excitability of the peripheral nerve between the groups of control subjects and migraine patients and also between the above-mentioned subgroups of patients.