Choroidal thickness changes in patients with migraine

This observational study evaluated choroidal thickness using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) in patients with migraine and compared the results with healthy controls. The study population consisted of 42 migraine patients (36 females and 6 males) who were referred from neurology clinics and 42 controls (36 female and 6 male) with no systemic or ocular disease and no headache of any type. All 84 patients underwent complete ophthalmic examination as well as determination of choroidal thickness using a high-speed, high-resolution SD-OCT device (λ = 840 nm, 27.000 A-scans/s, 5-µm axial resolution). The migraine patients were classified into the migraine with aura group or the migraine without aura group, and a pain score from 1 to 10 was determined for each patient based on the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The mean choroidal thicknesses were 276.81 ± 37.76 µm in the migraine group and 300.44 ± 24.93 µm in controls. The difference in choroidal thickness between the migraine patients and the controls was significant (P = 0.001). Choroidal thickness measurements of five patients during an attack showed an acute decrease (mean 45.50 µm) in choroidal thickness from the values in the same patients during the attack-free period. There was no correlation between VAS score and the type of migraine with choroidal thickness (P > 0.05). The decrease in mean choroidal thickness in patients with migraine compared to controls may be related to the vascular pathology of the migraine. The acute decrease in choroidal thickness during an attack also lends support to this hypothesis of reduced ocular blood flow in these patients.