BASILAR ARTERY MIGRAINE
The Basilar Artery migraine is often referred to as the Basilar-Type migraine, Bickerstaff Syndrome, vertebrobasilar migraine, or brainstem migraine and is one that can be quite scary for an individual to experience. The Basilar-Type migraine is generally experienced more frequently in females than in males and it is neurological in origin although its name may lead a person to believe otherwise. The symptoms of this type of migraine often last less than an hour but have been known, on occasion, to persist for longer periods of time. These symptoms will allow you to understand why the Basilar Artery migraine is such a frightening experience for an individual to go through.
Difficulty speaking words properly, dizziness or spinning vision, impairment of hearing, double vision, ringing in the ears, numbness or burning sensation, and ataxia are a few of the symptoms that are often experienced with a Basilar Artery migraine. Two of these symptoms must be experienced in conjunction with one of the following criteria in order to be properly diagnosed with this type of migraine. These criteria are: one symptom experienced or developing during a five or more minute period with different symptoms that occur consecutively within the same period of time; these symptoms last in duration for at least 5 minutes but less than 60. A headache that meets migraine standards should accompany these symptoms within the period of one hour but no motor weakness should be experienced.
A Basilar Artery migraine does have an effect on the possibility of stroke in the afflicted individual; it increases the chances just a bit. There are, of course, several other medical issues that should be ruled out by the physician before a diagnosis is made. Those issues include: brain lesions, congenital defects such as AVM, stroke, seizure-type disorders, and vertebrobasilar disease. This migraine can also be very disabling due to the neural side effects.
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