By Ed Susman, United Press International
SEATTLE, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- The onset of migraine headaches literally
turns the world upside down for two teenagers.
Israeli researchers reported Tuesday that both young men complained
that during their migraine aura -- a common feature that heralds the
beginning of the headache -- they experienced vision inversion that
lasted as long as 5 minutes before it corrected by itself.
Dr. Puiv Nisipeanu, a neurologist at Hillel Jaffe Medical Center,
Hadera, Israel, said, ''The only previous mention in the medical
literature of such a phenomenon in migraine was in a paper in 1949.''
Nisipeanu said that inverted vision has been mentioned in the medical
literature for more than 200 years, but only in contention with
strokes, brain tumors and other brain diseases and trauma.
''The first patient who reported the phenomenon, a 19-year-old, was
very frightened by what happening to him,'' said Dr. Rivka Inzelberg,
who also practices at the medical center about 25 miles north of Tel
Aviv.
Since the first occurrence, the teenager has suffered the inverted
vision each time he has a migraine attack -- about once every two to
three months, the researchers reported to the American Neurological
Association.
Nisipeanu said none of the bouts last more than five minutes before
normal vision returns. In addition to the vision alteration the attacks
also cause moderate or severe throbbing headache.
Inzelberg said that after the first patient, she and Nisipeanu scoured
the medical literature trying to find other instances of 180- degree
rotation of visual image in migraine patients. ''We estimated that the
phenomenon was so rare that we would never see another case. Then, the
next week, this other patient comes in complaining of the same thing,''
she said.
Nisipeanu said that the first abrupt appearance of the inverted vision
was frightening for both patients. ''Neurological examinations, brain
magnetic resonance imaging and other tests were normal in both patients,
'' he said, admitting the phenomenon was baffling.
Nisipeanu, a migraine sufferer himself, said, ''Migraine aura occurs to
a large percentage of people who have the disorder. Dysfunction in the
area of the brain where normal vision occurs may be upset by migraine,
interfering with brain mechanisms responsible for the accurate
computation of the image.''
