Headache in Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Lesion Mapping Study

To examine whether certain brain regions affected by an ischemic stroke are associated with headache as a symptom of the stroke, investigators compared the locations of acute ischemic strokes in 50 patients who had headache secondary to the stroke and in 50 patients without secondary headaches.

Stroke patients with headache were significantly more likely to have infarcts that involved the insula and the somatosensory cortex, two regions known to play important roles in pain processing.