In migraine patients, neck pain is very prevalent between as well as during migraine attacks. But its mechanism not clear. The involvement of the neck muscle RCPmi (rectus capitis posterior minor muscle) is speculated since it is linked with the occipital dura mater. The study results advocated that in migraine, no structural alterations of RCPmi is involved. RCPmi volume measured with MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) did not differ between migraine patients and controls. Furthermore, the volume of RCPmi was not linked with the years lived with migraine, and migraine pain side or frequency.

This cross-sectional MRI study aimed to determine the volume of RCPmi in migraine patients when compared to the control group.

In 40 episodic migraine patients, muscle volume was determined utilizing MRI and compared with 40 controls in preexisting images from prior studies. With a 3.0 T MRI Scanner, three-dimensional T1 weighted sequences were gathered. By manually tracing the circumference of muscle utilizing Horos medical image viewer, the volume of RCPmi was checked. 

In migraine patients, the mean RCPmi volume was 1.22cm3 and in controls, it was 1.17cm3  as illustrated in Table 1 and Figure 1.

In patients with unilateral migraine, no differences were witnessed in RCPmi volume on the pain side vs. the non-pain side. A mean RCPmi volume of 1.18 cm3 was found in patients with aura compared with 1.27 cm3 in patients without aura. Overall, the RCPmi volume was smaller in women compared with men as depicted in Figure 1:

Figure 1: Muscle volumes of 40 migraine patients and 40 controls (** indicates p < 0.001)  MO; migraine without aura, MA; migraine with aura, ns; non-significant

No association existed between the muscle volume and years with migraine, headache or migraine frequency, age, weight or BMI (Body mass index) as depicted in Table 2:

Thus, there was no difference in RCPmi volume between migraine and control group.

In migraine patients, there are no structural alterations in RCPmi.