CONTACT THERMOGRAPHY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF CHILDHOOD MIGRAINE

The objective of our prospective study was to assess the role of conta ct thermography in children with migraine. Contact thermograms were do ne in 54 children aged 4.2 - 16.5 years (median 10.5 years). who were seen for headache and on 10 age-matched controls, between July and Dec ember 1991. Thermograms were interpreted as definitely normal, equivoc ally normal, equivocally abnormal. and definitely abnormal by a radiol ogist who was blinded to clinical information. Forty-eight children ha d the test between headaches: of these, four out of 26 patients (15%) who had migraine without aura and 3 out of 14 children (21%) who had m igraine with aura had definitely abnormal thermograms. Nine out of 10 normal controls had definitely normal thermograms. The sensitivity of contact thermography in the diagnosis of childhood migraine, when done between headaches, was low in our study.