Nearly 30 million Americans suffer with pain from migraines. Women are affected three times more often than men, and 70 to 80 percent of sufferers have a first-degree relative (parent, brother, sister or child) with a history of migraines. This vascular type of headache is typically experienced between the ages of 15 and 55; surprisingly, only an estimated one-fifth report experiencing an aura, the known warning that signals the onset of a migraine. Less than half of those who suffer from migraines have received the correct diagnosis of migraine from their physician; unfortunately, migraine headaches are often misdiagnosed frequently as a sinus or tension headache. While headaches rarely are due to organic causes such as an infection it is important to know possible organic etiologies that can produce a migraine.
High Temperature and Viral Infections
A headache can be induced by a fever, so one's temperature needs to be taken, because fever is usually a symptom of an underlying organic process. This is especially important to check in the case of children because boys and girls before puberty tend to experience migraines at roughly the same rate. Headaches can be a co-morbid condition that accompanies many viral infections. Migraines also can persist after any fever associated with the infection is gone. Examples of common infection sites include the sinuses, urinary tract or lungs.
Meningitis
Meningitis is an inflammatory organic process that involves the meninges, which are the membranes that cover the brain and the spinal fluid that encases the central nervous system. When an underlying organic process such as an infection irritates or inflames the meninges and enters the spinal fluid, it becomes meningitis. The infected spinal fluid has difficulty circulating through the central nervous system and causes brain pressure to increase. This can result in producing a migraine headache.
Associated Organic Diseases
Migraines tend to occur frequently in individuals who have the following diagnoses: epilepsy, Tourette's syndrome, hereditary essential tremor, hereditary cerebral amyloid angiopathy and ischemic stroke. Whether a causal relationship exists among migraines and these co-morbid conditions is unclear. Much remains unknown about the organic causes of migraines.
