Cluster headache with aura

The objective of our study is to report the frequency and characteristics of cluster headache with aura among the population of patients with cluster headache treated in our outpatient neurology clinic. 254 patients were submitted to semi-structured interviews to identify the presence of symptoms similar to the migraine aura. 5 patients who suffered from a cluster headache with aura filled a diary with the characteristics of the pain attacks and the aura. All the patients with either episodic or chronic cluster headache were studied. The pain attacks were associated with symptoms similar to the migraine aura in five patients (2%). These disorders were usually ipsilateral to the pain and consisted of paresthesias of the trigeminal territory, clumsiness of the limbs or visual disturbances. Neither paresis nor hypoesthesia could be proved by clinical examination during the attack. We propose to reserve the name of cluster headache with aura to these cases that show similar symptomatology to the migraine aura. These manifestations suggest the participation of the central nervous system in this type of cluster headache. Received: 16 July 2001, Accepted in revised form: 4 December 2001 Correspondence to E. Martínez-Fernández