How are patients diagnosed with migraine with aura?

By Editorial Team

May 20, 2011

Migraine FAQs: How are patients diagnosed with migraine with aura?

To be diagnosed with migraine with aura, patients must have attacks that meet the following criteria:

A. Patient experienced at least 2 attacks fulfilling criteria B and C, listed below

B. Headache with at one or more of the following four characteristics:

1. Visual

2. Sensory

3. Speech and/or language

4. Motor

5. Brainstem

6. Retinal

C. Headache with at least 2 of the following four characteristics:

1. At least one aura symptom spreads gradually over 5 or more minutes, and/or 2 or more symptoms occur in succession

2. Each individual aura symptom lasts 5-60 minutes

3. At least one aura symptom is unilateral

4. The aura is accompanied, or followed within 60 minutes, by headache

D. Not better accounted for by another ICHD-III diagnosis, and transient ischaemic attack has been excluded.