Role of Transcranial Duplex in Detection of Patent Foramen Ovale in Migraine Patients and its Correlation to White Matter Changes in the Brain

Abstract Background Many studies show increased prevalence of PFO among migraine patients. Is it a causation relationship or co-existence? That’s not clear yet. Migraine is a well-known independent risk factor for subclinical focal deep white matter lesions (WMLs), even in young and otherwise healthy individuals with no cardiovascular risk factors. The relationship between Right to Left Shunt (RLS) and WMLs is not known. Objective Several studies have shown significant relationship between PFO and migraine. We investigate the percentage of PFO in migraine patients in El-Demerdash outpatient headache clinic. Methods It’s a cross-sectional time interval study conducted between 9 September2022 to March 2023. we conducted our study on 31 patients at our outpatient headache clinic were diagnosed as migraine according to ICH-3rd edition. Each patient was investigated with TCD and TEE to diagnose PFO. Results The percentage of all RLS is 38.7% and the percentage of PFO is 32.6%, about 60% of them are small size PFO. Conclusion PFO was found over third of our patients 32.6% of the migraine patients.