Table 2.
Clinical characteristics of VSS patients and controls
| VSS patients | Controls | p | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Migraine | + | - | + | - | |
| Participants | n = 15 | n = 21 | n = 16 | n = 23 | |
| Demographic data | |||||
| Female (%) | 8 (53%) | 8 (38%) | 12 (75%) | 13 (56%) | 0.053 |
| Age in years (mean ± SD) | 31.2 ± 7.5 | 32.1 ± 8.1 | 35.6 ± 9.0 | 33.9 ± 8.6 | 0.190 |
| Migraine Prevalence (%) | 15 (42%) | 17 (43%) | 0.955 | ||
| Migraine Characteristics | |||||
| Migraine with Aura (%) | 12 (80%) | - | 4 (23%) | - | 0.017 |
| - Visual Aura (%) | 12 (100%) | - | 4 (100%) | - | - |
| - Other Aura | - | - | - | - | |
| Age at Migraine Onset (years, mean ± SD) | 11.7 ± 6.5 | - | 17.8 ± 9.1 | - | 0.030 |
| Migraine Frequency (attacks/month) | 9.02 ± 8.2 | - | 6.86 ± 5.3 | - | 0.900 |
| Average Headache Intensity | 5.75 ± 2.0 | - | 6.64 ± 1.5 | - | 0.576 |
| Clinical Features of VSS | |||||
| Age at VSS Onset (years, mean ± SD) | 20.1 ± 8.9 | 26.35 ± 9.4 | - | 0.811 | |
| Palinopsia (%) | 12 (80%) | 18 (85.7%) | - | 0.230 | |
| Nyctalopia (%) | 10 (66.7%) | 7 (33.3%) | - | 0.101 | |
| Entoptic Phenomena (%) | 9 (60%) | 6 (28.6%) | - | 0.332 | |
| Photophobia (%) | 14 (93.3%) | 17 (81.0%) | - | 0.829 | |
| Light flashes | 5 (33.3%) | 3 (14.3%) | - | 0.244 | |
| Halos | 1 (6.7%) | 2 (9.5%) | - | 0.686 | |
| Derealisation | - | 1 (4.8%) | - | 0.364 | |
| Tinnitus (%) | 11 (73.3%) | 17 (81%) | - | 0.244 | |
Statistical comparisons were performed using the Mann-Whitney U-Test for continuous variables and the Chi-Square Test for categorical variables. P-values refer to comparisons between the overall VSS cohort and the overall control group, except for the category “Clinical features of VSS” where they compare the subgroups VSS migraine and VSS no migraine. All percentage values presented (e.g., for migraine prevalence, gender etc…) refer to the respective subgroup and not to the total study population