Soft neurological signs in migraine patients

Abstract

Migraine is a category of primary headaches, which can be aura or aura-free. According to WHO, it represents the 19th cause of disabling disease with the highest incidence in women. Soft neurological signs are abnormalities unrelated to a specific area of the brain. They are expressions of frontotalamic affectations. Most patients with primary headache consult the physical examination without neurological findings, so findings of neurological soft signs could predict crisis. Objective: To determine the presence of neurological soft signs in patients with migraine. Methods: Descriptive, observational, transversal, retrospective study. The population was represented by 100 patients with a diagnosis of migraine who attended the neurology service of Centro Médico Docente La Trinidad, from January to September 2022. Results: The average age is 41.34, with standard deviation of 16.84, the frequency with 81% predominated in the female sex, 76% had migraine without aura. 43% had present the sign of graphesthesia, 14 of these were patients with migraine with aura and 29 migraine without aura, followed by 33% with tactile extinction of which 15 patients with migraine with aura and 18 without aura. Conclusions: We can conclude that the motor, sensory integrative and complex motor sequencing alterations as neurological soft signs of migraine patients with or without aura scarcely anticipate their migraine crises. We stress the need to extend studies such as ours to migraine patients in order to give clinical significance to these neurological soft signs as predictors.