Early Detection of Migraine Episodes

The pathophysiology of migraine is not completely understood. The neurovascular theory posits that migraine pain originates from the trigeminovascular system, the activation of which triggers the release of vasoactive neuropeptides, which in turn triggers vasodilation and dural plasma extravasation, leading to neurogenic inflammation.  

Another way to say this is that the trigeminovascular system can go awry and cause inflammation as well the enlargement of blood vessels in the brain, thereby leading to pain in the head. 

The Holy Grail of migraine treatment (as opposed to prevention) lies in the earliest possible detection of a developing migraine episode, well before the onset of headache. Little research has been published to-date on this topic. However, one study used sleep time data from the wrist-worn Empatica E4 wearable sensors, but their findings were inconclusive (2). A systematic review of computerized migraine diagnostic tools identified 41 eligible studies, all of which focused on migraine diagnosis but not early detection (3).

This is where we come in. We believe that with the right algorithm, a wearable has the potential to detect the subtle signals and alert a migraine sufferer to the oncoming migraine, even before a they themselves would likely be able to. And we believe that with enough data and input from our members, our data scientists can build that algorithm, which would then become a permanent feature in Cardiogram.

We've launched a migraine project and are asking our Cardiogram members who suffer migraines who are willing to participate to take our survey, and log their migraines in the app. Interested in contributing? Learn how here.