Neurovascular changes in prolonged migraine aura in FHM with a novel ATP1A2 gene mutation.

Objectives: To report cerebral blood flow changes during attacks of hemiplegic migraine with prolonged aura (HMPA) longer than 24 h in patients with familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM) with a novel gene mutation.

Methods: The authors performed serial neuroimaging studies during acute stage and after recovery of aura symptoms in eight HMPA attacks in two affected individuals of the Japanese family of FHM during a 10-year-observational period. The authors also performed a mutational analysis for all exons of the CACNA1A, ATP1A2 and SCN1A genes in three individuals of this family.

The effect of orexin-A on the pathological mechanism in the rat focal cerebral ischemia.

Orexin-A is a neuropeptide involved in the control feeding, arousal or sleep behavior in the hypothalamus. In the present study, the cortex and lateral hypothalamus of rats subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO)-reperfusion brain injury were examined by double immunofluorescence staining. The number of orexin-A-expressing neurons in the non-ischemic side was significantly lower than the ischemic side.