Relation of Migraine to Cerebral Aneurysm

THE RELATION of migraine and other forms of periodic headache to intracranial aneurysm and subarachnoid hemorrhage has been commented on with considerable frequency. The association of migraine and intracranial aneurysm has been mentioned by Fearnsides, 1 Critchley and Ferguson, 2 Jefferson, 3 Richardson and Hyland, 4 Dunning, 5 Rowbotham, 6 Dandy, 7 Wolff, 8 Sugar and Tinsley 9 and Alpers and Schlezinger. 10 Goldflam 11 and Adie 12 were concerned with the relation of migraine to subarachnoid hemorrhage rather than to intracranial aneurysm per se. The series of verified cases of intracranial aneurysm at the Jefferson Hospital contains 3 cases in which recurrent periodic headache was present for many years before an aneurysm was suspected. Two of these cases fulfil the criteria for migraine; the other case of recurrent periodic headache had some, but not all, of the features of migraine. Instances of ophthalmoplegic migraine have not been included in