The volume of the thalamus and hippocampus in a right-handed female episodic migraine group

Mingchen He; Gréta Kis-Jakab; Hedvig Komáromy; Gábor Perlaki; Gergely Orsi; Edit Bosnyák; Renáta Rozgonyi; Flóra John; Anita Trauninger; Kata Eklics; Zoltán Pfund

doi:10.3389/fneur.2023.1254628

The volume of the thalamus and hippocampus in a right-handed female episodic migraine group

Front Neurol. 2023 Oct 19:14:1254628. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1254628. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Mingchen He¹, Gréta Kis-Jakab^{2

3

4}, Hedvig Komáromy¹, Gábor Perlaki^{1

2

3

4}, Gergely Orsi^{1

2

3

4}, Edit Bosnyák⁴, Renáta Rozgonyi⁴, Flóra John⁴, Anita Trauninger⁴, Kata Eklics⁵, Zoltán Pfund⁴

Affiliations

¹ Pécs Diagnostic Center, Pécs, Hungary.
² The Hungarian Research Network-Pécsi Tudományegyetem, Clinical Neuroscience Magnetic Resonance Research Group, Pécs, Hungary.
³ Department of Neurosurgery, Medical School, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
⁴ Department of Neurology, Medical School, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
⁵ Department of Languages for Biomedical Purposes and Communication, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.

Abstract

Background/aim: Migraine is a disabling headache with clinical and radiological complications. The aim of this study was to investigate the volume of the thalamus and hippocampus in migraineurs, the role of white matter lesions (WMLs), and the migraine characteristics in volume changes.

Methods: Brain MRIs of 161 right-handed female episodic migraine patients and 40 right-handed, age-related, healthy women were performed. Left and right thalamus segmentation was performed on the 3D MPRAGE images using the Freesurfer 5.3 image analysis suite. Hippocampal subfield segmentation was based on a novel statistical atlas built primarily upon ultra-high-resolution ex vivo MRI data.

Results: The left hippocampus had a smaller and the left thalamus had a larger total volume than the right one in both the control (p < 0.001) and migraine groups (p <0.001). Patients with white matter lesions (L+) showed smaller right thalamus and right hippocampal tail volumes than patients without lesions (L-) (p = 0.002 and p = 0.015, respectively) and controls (p = 0.039 and p = 0.025, respectively). For the right hippocampal body, we found significantly smaller volume in L+ patients when compared to L- patients (p = 0.018) and a similar trend when compared to the control group (p = 0.064). Patients without aura (A-) showed a larger right hippocampus (p = 0.029), right hippocampal body (p = 0.012), and tail volumes (p = 0.011) than patients with aura (A+). Inverse correlations were found between attack frequency and the volumes of the left and right hippocampal tails (p = 0.018 and p = 0.008, respectively).

Conclusion: These findings indicate that WMLs may influence the volume of the right thalamus and hippocampus, while migraine aura and attack frequency may lead to volume changes in different parts of the hippocampi in migraine patients. These data support the necessity of effective migraine management to limit subcortical volume loss in migraineurs.

Keywords: episodic migraine; migraine headache characteristics; right-handed female migraineurs; volume of thalamus and hippocampus; white matter lesions.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by grants from EEA/Norwegian Financial Mechanism HU 0114—Save what can be saved—applied neurological research using high-field magnetic resonance imaging, by TÁMOP-4.2.1/B, EFOP-3.6.2-16-2017-00008. The role of neuroinflammation in neurodegeneration: from molecules to clinics, TKP2021-EGA-16 and TKP-2021-EGA-13. Project Nos. TKP2021-EGA-16 and TKP-2021-EGA-13 have been implemented with the support provided by the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary, financed under the TKP2021-EGA funding scheme. This study was also supported by the Hungarian Brain Research Program 2 and 3 (2017-1.2.1-NKP-2017-00002 and NAP 3.0) and the Translational Neuroscience National Laboratory (RRF-2.3.1-21-2022-00011). ZP was funded by PTE ÁOK-KA-2017-23 and EFOP-3.6.3-VEKOP_00009.