Objectives and Background.— The possible effects of migraine on executive abilities remain controversial; hence, we studied inter‐ictal cognitive performance of individuals with migraine and non migraine headaches (NMH) compared with headache free controls. Design and Method.— In a cross‐sectional observational study, taking place in primary care, adults aged 50 or above were evaluated by a neurobehavioral battery including several executive measures. Present history of headache was sought, and migraine was diagnosed by the ID‐Migraine questionnaire. The effect of headache type on cognitive measures was analyzed with multiple regression with adjustment by diagnosis, age, gender, education, and depressive symptoms. Results.— Among 478 participants, 23.2% reported current headache, of whom 50 were NMH, and 61 were migraine headaches. No group differences were found in the majority of cognitive measures. Compared with controls, migraine subjects performed worse on a test of attention, while NMH participants presented more intrusions and worse discriminability in memory recognition plus a lower performance on semantic memory tests. Conclusion.— The presence of headaches in late adulthood was related to a worse performance on few measures of executive functioning, suggesting that cognitive impact is not specific to migraine but might be associated to headache.

We describe the longest period of subcutaneous EEG (sqEEG) monitoring to date, in a 35‐year‐old female with refractory epilepsy. Over 230 days, 4791/5520 h of sqEEG were recorded (86%, mean 20.8 [IQR 3.9] hours/day). Using an electronic diary, the patient reported 22 seizures, while automatically‐assisted visual sqEEG review detected 32 seizures. There was substantial agreement between days of reported and recorded seizures (Cohen’s kappa 0.664), although multiple clustered seizures remained undocumented. Circular statistics identified significant sqEEG seizure cycles at circadian (24‐hour) and multidien (5‐day) timescales. Electrographic seizure monitoring and analysis of long‐term seizure cycles are possible with this neurophysiological tool.

Headache is a common symptom after cerebral angiography, although it has seldom been studied. We aimed to evaluate the frequency of headache at 24 h and 6 months after angiography and to describe its characteristics. We used a cross-sectional survey of consecutive patients submitted to angiography and determined headache presence and its characterization. Headache occurrence was analyzed against headache history, clinical data, technical and demographical variables. Of 107 procedures studied, 51.3% patients experienced headaches within 24 h. Patients more likely to experience headaches were females or had subarachnoid hemorrhage. Six months post-procedure 48.8% of patients had frequent headaches. These patients had a positive headache history before the procedure, migraine in particular. Half of patients undergoing routine angiography experience benign post-procedure headaches within 24 h (especially women), yet it does not seem to predispose to chronic long-term headaches.

Patients consistently report cognitive impairment during migraine attacks, yet the documentation of such dysfunction by neuropsychological evaluation has lacked similar consistency. This incongruence may be due to discrepant study designs, assessment tools and small samples sizes. To search for evidence of decline in cognitive functions during a migraine attack, compared to headache-free performance. The secondary objective was to determine if the eventual decline had a consistent neuropsychological pattern. Systematic review of the medical literature using PubMed and Cochrane library databases without limitations or restrictions from inception to March 2014, using the search terms "migraine", "cognition", "neuropsychological". We included studies in episodic migraine that had a neuropsychological evaluation performed during an attack. From 1,023 titles screened, a total of 10 articles met criteria for inclusion and were fully reviewed. Only five of these studies, comprising a total of 163 individuals, had enough data to allow an appraisal of the study question. All five studies were positive in documenting some type of reversible cognitive impairment during the migraine attack. The pattern of cognitive impairment most often documented was of executive dysfunction, but the presence of bias induced by the choice of tests and of small samples prevents this finding from being conclusive. This review supports the existence of reversible cognitive dysfunction during the migraine attack, corroborating patients' subjective descriptions. Further work is needed to establish the pattern of cognitive dysfunction, their underling pathophysiological mechanisms and the impact of these symptoms in migraine-associated disability.

No abstract