[The study of early auditory evoked potentials in primary headaches in children and adolescents and their pathogenetic implications].

UNLABELLED: Neurophysiological examinations, especially auditory evoked potentials which enable us to make the neurophysiological evaluation of the auditory pathway play an important role in the explanation of pathophysiology of primary headaches, especially migraine. The functional neuroimaging studies in patients with migraine during pain attacks have shown the activation of brainstem. It is suggested that the appearance of photophobia in patients with migraine may be related to the disturbances of brainstem functions. The aim of the studies was to evaluate the brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP) in children with primary headaches. The obtained results were interpreted with consideration of the complex pathomechanism of migraine.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: 125 patients participated in these examinations with 90 ones with migraine and 35 ones with tension-type headache (TTH), diagnosed according to the criteria of the International Headache Society (IHS). The control group for neurophysiological examinations consisted of 66 healthy children and adolescents of the same age. BAEP were recorded using 4-channel Multiliner (Toennies, Germany). The following parameters were evaluated: morphology of the recording, absolute latencies of I to V waves and interlatencies between I-III, III-V and I-V.

RESULTS: Essential prolongation of latencies in III and IV waves of BAEP was found only in patients with migraine, especially with visual aura. They were significant in comparison to latencies obtained in children with TTH and in the control group. No correlations between the clinical data from patients with migraine and TTH, and neuropsychological parameters were found.

CONCLUSIONS: 1. The significant prolongation of III and IV wave latencies of BAEP was found in migraine patients only. The obtained results suggest that the brainstem contributes to the pathomechanism of these headaches. 2. The BAEP recordings in children and adolescents with TTH were not different from the parameters obtained in healthy children.