Migraine Aura Complexity Score found to be a efficient tool for estimating migraine aura as determined in a study published in Cephalalgia- An International Journal of Headache.

Out of migraine patients, about 30% are affected by migraine aura (MA), which can manifest very heterogeneously. The term 'aura' denotes a neurological symptom of a migraine, primarily the visual disturbances. Other symptoms are somatosensory and language disturbances, but not the motor weakness, brainstem or retinal symptoms. Presently, there is no scoring system for estimating the complexity of migraine aura. The researchers aimed to develop a Migraine Aura Complexity Score that synthesized the quantity and quality of aura symptoms and tested its applicability in neuroimaging studies.

The patients with migraine aura were surveyed to obtain the features of migraine aura. The explorative and confirmatory analyses were used to determine the Migraine Aura Complexity Score. In each patient, the median values were derived from 10 consecutive migraine auras. The Migraine Aura Complexity Score was correlated with an average cortical thickness of different brain areas in the patients under consideration. The cortical thickness was assessed using the Surface-based Morphometric Analysis approach.

A total of 23 migraineurs with aura (16 females and 7 males) were included in this study. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested the second-order model with three-factor measurement for classifying migraine aura. The first factor is related to higher cortical dysfunction during migraine aura, whereas second is related with the degree of participation of primary visual and somatosensory cortices. The third factor related the symptoms of somatosensory aura and hand and head involvement. A positive correlation of Migraine Aura Complexity Score and averaged cortical thickness were revealed in the left and right hemispheres overall and in some of their regions.