Contribution of concurrent Doppler and EEG in differentiating occipital epileptic discharges from migraine.

In a young woman, episodes of visual symptoms were accompanied by simultaneous nonspecific EEG alterations. Concurrent Doppler sonography showed increased blood flow velocity with latency of a few seconds in the posterior cerebral arteries only. This is typical for local autoregulatory hyperperfusion due to increased neuronal activity, thus indicating focal epileptic discharges and excluding migrainous attacks.