'Cluster' headaches are series of extremely intense, one-sided bouts of head pain lasting between 15 minutes and 3 hours that recur over weeks or even months before disappearing altogether. This type of headache - that only seems to affect men - has long baffled neurologists as, to date, even high-resolution brain imaging has failed to show up any physical abnormalities in cluster-headache sufferers.
Now, Peter Goadsby of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London UK announce for the first time a precise anatomical basis for this excruciating condition. Goadsby's group used a new technology called 'voxel based morphometry' that interpolates a three-dimensional structural image of the brain from two-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging data. This enabled them to calculate region-by-region brain volume in right-, and left-handed cluster patients and in headache-free controls of a variety of ages. They found that people beset by cluster headaches actually have more grey matter (brain cells that literally look grey to the naked eye) on the painful side of their heads than healthy adults.
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