Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT in patients with migraine and chronic tension type headache: A comparative study

Abstract

Migraine and chronic tension type headache are widespread diseases in neurology clinics. Hemodynamic studies done by the method of Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) resulted in conflicting findings. The purpose of this study was to evaluate rCBF of patients with chronic tension type headache by using Tc-99m HMPAO SPECT technique and to investigate whether there is any difference by the rCBF ratios between the chronic tension type headache and the migraine patients who are in interictal period. In this study, we performed Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) Hexamethylpropylene amine oxyme (HMPAO) SPECT to determine regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in 8 patients with aura and 9 patients without aura migraine and 21 patients with chronic tension type headache. The patients were all women, aged between 20 and 40. There was no significant difference according to the mean ages between the groups. Statistically significant difference could not be found between the patients with aura and without aura migraine and the patients with chronic tension type headache according to rCBF ratio values. © Universitätsverlag Ulm GmbH 2005.