Impact of free-water correction on white matter changes measured by diffusion tensor imaging in migraine

Menstrual migraine affects about 25% of female migraine patients. However, the diagnosis of migraine is particularly difficult because the brain changes associated with migraine are challenging to detect with imaging techniques. Diffusion-weighted MRI (dMRI) permits the detection of alterations in the microenvironment of the brain tissues. We investigate whether removing the contribution of the free water component from the diffusion-signal can provide increased sensitivity to identify white matter changes in migraine using diffusion tensor metrics.