Background

migraine, Migraine, CM
DISORDER, DISEASE COURSE, PATHOPHYSIOLOGY, MIGRAINE, MIGRAINE, IRON DEPOSITION
Migraine is a highly prevalent disorder that imposes an enormous socioeconomic burden. While patients with chronic migraine (CM) only account for 1.4–2.2% of the general population globally [The pathophysiology of migraine involves both vascular and neural mechanisms [Using non-invasive techniques such as T2-weighted and T2*-weighted MR imaging, the signal reduction caused by iron provides us with an indirect way to visualize iron content. In migraineurs, increased iron deposition has been found in the PAG [With the recent development, quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) is a novel post-processing technique to quantitatively assess the magnetic susceptibility of the tissue thus may provide improved image quality for the visualization of the subcortical nucleus [This study aims to use the QSM to comprehensively investigate the brain iron concentration of subcortical brain nuclei in patients with CM and EM as compared to healthy controls. The relationships between iron deposition and disease course as well as functional disabilities were also investigated.