Articles about Eye Health and Disease 2003
 

Glaucomatous Visual Field Defects in Patients with Migraine

(From Comoglu S, Yarangumeli A, Gurbuz Koz O, et. al. Glaucomatous visual field defects in patients with migraine. J Neurol 2003;250(2):201-6.)

This study investigated the visual fields (peripheral vision) in patients with migraine compared to blind spots typical in cases of glaucoma. Patients with headaches diagnosed as migraine were enrolled in the study. Researchers questioned each patient about frequency, side, localization and severity of the pain, as well as onset and duration of symptoms, existence and description (if present) of aura, additional systemic problems and family history of migraine and glaucoma. Clinicians then performed detailed ophthalmologic examinations and computerized visual field (VF) analysis on 77 patients (61 female, 16 male), and made statistical comparisons between the group of patients with glaucomatous-like visual field defects and the group without significant defects.

Results: VF tests revealed glaucomatous-like defects in 48 (62.3 percent) of 77 patients. Intraocular pressure (IOP) levels were within normal limits in all cases. Researchers observed no statistically significant differences between the groups with and without VF defects related to sex, localization and severity of pain, existence and description of aura, or family history of glaucoma; nor did they see differences related to duration of migraine, IOP or cup/disc ratio. The glaucomatous group was significantly older, with a significantly higher age of onset for migraine. Risk of having glaucomatous-like defects was higher in patients who had migraine attacks once a month or less frequently. The study showed a tendency of pain and visual field defects to develop on the same side.

Conclusions: The authors conclude that a possible relationship exists between the pathophysiology of migraine, visual field defects and glaucomatous optic neuropathy; they recommend VF screening for normal tension glaucoma for patients with migraine.

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