Disappearance of aura symptoms in patients with hemiplegic migraine after patent foramen ovale closure: a case report and literature review

Pian Wang; Fengyou Yao; Hongbo Zhang; Qian Yu; Yan Wang

doi:10.3389/fneur.2023.1267100

Disappearance of aura symptoms in patients with hemiplegic migraine after patent foramen ovale closure: a case report and literature review

Front Neurol. 2023 Oct 12:14:1267100. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1267100. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Pian Wang¹, Fengyou Yao², Hongbo Zhang¹, Qian Yu², Yan Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Chengdu Fifth People's Hospital, Chengdu, China.
² Department of Cardiology, Chengdu Fifth People's Hospital, Chengdu, China.

Abstract

Hemiplegic migraine (HM) can cause significant functional impairment and negatively affect the quality of life of affected individuals. Emerging evidence suggests an association between migraines and congenital patent foramen ovale (PFO), which is a small opening between the atria of the heart that normally closes shortly after birth. This report describes a 34 years-old woman with sporadic hemiplegic migraine (SHM) who was diagnosed with PFO. Following percutaneous PFO closure, her hemiplegic symptoms disappeared, but her headache exacerbated. After 3 years of follow-up, her headache severity gradually reduced, and the frequency remained consistent at 2-3 times per year with no aura symptoms. This case highlights the dissociation between the resolution of hemiplegic symptoms and the persistence of headaches after PFO closure in sporadic HM. Patients with HM may experience changes in aura symptoms and headache severity after PFO closure. Before performing PFO closure in patients with hemiplegic migraine, the indications should be thoroughly understood.

Keywords: aura symptoms; headache; patent foramen ovale; sporadic hemiplegic migraine; whole-exome sequencing.

Publication types

Case Reports

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding was provided by the Sichuan Provincial Health Commission Popularization Project (21PJ150); Hypertension (Tai Ge) Special Research Project of Sichuan Medical Association (No. 2019TG37) and the Chengdu High-Level Clinical Key Specialty Construction project.