Deans' stroke musings: Hemiplegic Migraine

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Hemiplegic Migraine

Not quite what I thought this would be when I saw the title. You'll want to read about triptans in bold
http://www.empowher.com/migraine/content/hemiplegic-migraine

Hemiplegic migraine is an alternate type of migraine involving weakness on one side of the body.

Symptoms are:

• Throbbing pain in the head prior to or after the onset of weakness
• Sometimes there will be no headache, just weakness
• Weakness on one side of the face, one arm or one leg
• Numbness and "pins and needles"
• Visual problems
• Confusion
• Speech difficulties
• Nausea and/or vomiting
• Sensitivity to light and sound
• Dizziness
• Sometimes temporary unconsciousness may occur

Not everyone has all the symptoms. Visual problems and speech difficulties only occur if the right side is affected.

Hemiplegic migraines have similar symptoms to a stroke but unlike stroke they will resolve within 24 hours and usually cause no lasting harm to the patient.

Diagnosis

The doctor will need to make sure your symptoms are not stroke, so in addition to taking a medical history he will order a CT scan or an MRI. He will also check your heart and make sure there aren’t any blood clots forming in the neck. If all of these results are negative for stroke or other conditions, you may be diagnosed with hemiplegic migraine.

What Causes Hemiplegic Migraine?

Hemiplegic migraine is caused by a neurotransmitter problem in the brain. The brain produces a specific protein which enables nerve cells to release neurotransmitters.

If the protein isn’t produced, then the nerves cannot release these neurotransmitters and the brain doesn’t receive the right messages. The majority of cases of hemiplegic migraine are genetically inherited and are caused by mutations in the CACNA1A, ATP1A2, and SCN1A genes.

Some cases of hemiplegic migraine are known as sporadic and they occur in the absence of any family history but in some cases are still caused by the same gene mutations. A genetic test is available.

Treatment

Triptans cannot be used as a treatment for hemiplegic migraine because they constrict vessels which could be dangerous with this type of migraine, but anti-inflammatory pain medications, anti-emetics to relief sickness or medications such as antidepressants or anticonvulsants can be used to treat the condition.

These can reduce the number of attacks and make them milder and easier to cope with. For very severe pain, intravenous magnesium sulphate may be given.