The optometric correlates of migraine

Abstract

Objective: Migraine is one of the most common debilitating diseases characterized by pulsating headaches continued from a few hours to several days, accompanied by nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light and sound. There have been claims of a relationship between migraine headaches and refractive errors and binocular vision anomalies. In this study, we aimed to evaluate optometric and ortoptic findings in patients with migraine headache and to compare with healthy subjects. Methods: This study includes 58 patients with migraine and 50 healthy subjects. Asthenopic symptoms, fotofobia, and visual symptoms of the patients were noted. Detailed ophthalmological examinations were performed containing spherical refractive error, astigmatic refractive error, spherical equivalent (SE), best-corrected visual acuity, slit lamp biomicroscopy, fundus examination. Also, ortoptic examination was performed icluding ocular motility, fusional reserves, and stereopis measurements. Results: Myopia and astigmatism were more frequent in migraine patients and near fusional convergence amlitudes were lower when compared with the control subjects (p=0.020, p=0.019, p=0.00 respectively). Conclusion: This study suggests that refractive errors and insufficiency of fusional mechanisms may make a negative contribution to migraine headache. Therefore, people who experience migraine headaches should have opthalmological examinations regularly to ensure that their refractive errors and ortoptic abnormalities are appropriately managed.