3. Results
3.1. Participant characteristics and flow of the trial
Thirty-four subjects were selected to participate in the electrophysiological
study. In therapeutic study, nineteen subjects, who participated
in the electrophysiological study, were included (10 in the experimental
group and 9 in the control group). Four patients (all of the control
group) dropped out during the study. One, after six sessions, reported
that personal reasons prevented him from complying with the session
schedule. The other patient justified the decision by lack of noticeable
improvement after six tDCS sessions and two reported worsening of
headache after second session. Fifteen participants completed all of the
study procedures. Fig. 1 shows the flow of individuals through the
study. In the electrophysiological and therapeutic study, no significant
differences were found between groups regarding their demographic
and clinical characteristics (Tables 1 and 2).
3.2. Electrophysiological study
Results of the electrophysiological study are presented in Fig. 2. All
migraine patients and healthy volunteers visualized phosphenes. PT
mean (given as % of maximal stimulator output) of patients with
(45.5 ± 10.4; p b 0.001) and without aura (49.3 ± 7; p = 0.001) were
significantly lower than healthy volunteers (71.6 ± 6.4). Comparing
PT of MA and MwoA patients, we did not find significant difference
(p = 0.223).
3.3. Therapeutic study
Since all patients who participated in electrophysiological
study showed cortical hyperexcitability compared to healthy subjects,
only cathodal tDCS (experimental group) was applied in therapeutic
study