Basilar Artery Migraine vs Migraine with Aura

Perhaps the most common misdiagnosis that is made in cases where patients have Basilar Artery Migraine is "classical migraine" or "migraine with aura." It is as a result of this misdiagnosis that many of the potentially dangerous medications are given to BAM patients.

If a patient with BAM is diagnosed as having migraine with aura or classical migraine, their clinician may prescribe either Imitrex (sumatriptan) or Cafergot (or other ergotamine tartrate or DHE medication) to treat the acute condition.

This can be very dangerous and the prescribing of such medications is warned against by the manufacturer. However, if the condition is diagnosed incorrectly, it is difficult to "catch" the erroneous prescription before it can cause damage to the patient.

Basilar Artery Migraine vs Epilepsy

Epilepsy is also a somewhat common incorrect diagnosis given to patients with Basilar Artery Migraine. A neurologist who is set on making a good and exact diagnosis should indeed concentrate on key questions and tests that can help provide the differential diagnosis between Basilar Artery Migraine and Epilepsy.

One of the key tests that should be administered to arrive at an accurate differential diagnosis here is the EEG, or electroencephalogram. The EEG should include a portion where the patient rests with eyes closed in a darkened room while the electroencephalographer operates a machine that produces a "strobe light effect" of flashing light at regular intervals.

In patients with epilepsy, as opposed to Basilar Artery Migraine, this portion of the EEG will usually demonstrate "evoked potentials" and characteristic "spike waves" seen in epilepsy.