Patients' resources > Basics

Basics

Headache: A general term, indicating pain in the head. It does not refer to any specific type of headache and does not provide any indication about the possible causes. A basic distinction must be made between primary headache and secondary headache. In primary headache, pain is both the symptom and the disease; it is not caused by a body disorder or, to put it more accurately, such a body disorder has not been identified yet.

Migraine without aura: A specific type of primary headache, characterized by one-sided symptoms and severe throbbing pain that worsens with routine physical activity and is associated with nausea, vomiting and intolerance of or sensitivity to light and sound.

Migraine with aura: A headache preceded by a phenomenon called "aura". The aura may occur in the form of visual disturbances (blind spots and light zigzags, blurred vision, etc.), numbness usually in the hand and face, and difficulty speaking. Symptoms may last from five minutes up to 60 minutes.

Hemiplegic migraine: A particular type of migraine with aura, in which the aura is characterized by strength loss in a part of the body. It is called familial hemiplegic migraine when it is inherited and is present in at least two generations of the same family. There are also so-called sporadic forms, affecting only one member in a family.

Chromosome: Chromosomes are pieces of DNA in cells, providing all the necessary information for the human body to take on certain characteristics and for its constituent parts to function correctly. Each human body cell contains 46 chromosomes.

Gene: Chromosomes are made up of genes. Each of these genes determines a particular function or characteristic of the individual, say the colour of the eyes.

Genetic modification: A term that indicates modifications in the genes. Genetic modifications may be unimportant and may not have any significant consequences on the human body, or they may severely affect normal functioning of the human body structures.

Familial pattern: A pattern of increased susceptibility of (close) relatives of an affected patient to develop the same disease (e.g., migraine). This does not mean that the disease is inherited, but merely that an individual is more likely to develop migraine if, say, one of his/her parents had it.

This page last modified: 08/07/2005