Clinical analysis of the patients with migraine-associated vertigo

A body of patients who develop episodic vertigo concurrently with migraine is being increasingly reported. This clinical condition has recently proposed as migraine-associated vertigo, which is considered to have a common pathophysiology with migraine. We treated 14 patients who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for migraine-associated vertigo. All patients were treated with oral medications, rizatriptan for headache, and the combination of lomerizine and valproic acid for migraine-associated vertigo. We evaluated the effect of the therapy based on the combination of frequency of episodic headaches and improvement in vertigo with the dizziness handicap inventory (DHI) scores. In 67% of the patients the frequency of episodic headaches was reduced, and 50% of the patients had significant improvement in their DHI scores. Although the pathophysiology of migraine-associated vertigo remains unclear, some patients with migraine are considered to develop vertigo due to disorders in the central or peripheral vestibular systems. Clinically, we should always keep migraine-associated vertigo in mind for the patients suffering from both vertigo and headache together.