Scintillating Scotomas

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Does anyone experiece these with their vision. I have heard they are called "Scintillating Scotomas" and sometimes but not always end with a headache
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If you see this image you see a sparking crescent thing that grows and lasts about an hour
They are annoying and I find it very difficult to read and I dare do not drive a car when I have one. I had my last one last month and I may get about three in a year. The worst ones I get do not end with a headache

Last edited by paulsinnerchild on 04 Jul 2009, 8:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Scintillating Scotomas...? I always heard of this called an aura. Mine precede and herald a migraine.

yeah, I first got one about 5 years ago and completely freaked out and arranged for a ride to the hospital. luckily a co-worker who'd had them a bunch came back from lunch and told me what it was. she said it was a "painless migraine". I've had them several times a year since, but never with a real migraine, and the few real migraines I've had have never included the visual anomaly.

similar. migraine related. also white flashing light - also migraine related.

oh, wow. i think i had this a few months ago. i was in an elevator at work with a lot of shiny brushed steel and fluorescent lighting, and when i got out, my vision was shimmering like this. i described it as when you're in a swimming pool and look up through the surface of the water. it lasted about a half hour. no one knew what it was.

I had one three days ago, it was far, far more intrusive than in your pics though, I could only read one letter at a time because my peripheral vision was so buggered. It started small, but ended up massive, covering most of my vision.

There are different types of aura, but scintillating scotomas are the most common.

I have had something of this nature shortly followed by migraine.

looks a bit like macular degeneration.

The big yellow star in my left eye kinda dampens out any blurry vision I have preceding and during a migraine (which I seem to have now; I have them often).

i have these several times a month, and have had for years. they are a form of migraine. if you're lucky, they do not move into the headache stage. (knocking on wood here) i have not had the painful kind of migraine in over 20 years, but these darned things are becoming more and more common. sometimes they are as your illustration suggests, sometimes they are technicolor, jagged, flashing lines. i believe they both have to do with unusual electrical discharge in the brain.

reference here may interest you -

http://www.allaboutvision.com/condition ... graine.htm

i tend to get the ones that look like the example this person has created

http://www.knownjohnson.com/?p=73#


i also, rarely but sometimes, have "alice in wonderland" syndrome. that's also an electrical discharge thing, and thankfully it's not very severe for me. but it's darned odd!

PS - on the visual migraines, i have noticed that too much caffeine (either as coffee or in chocolate) will set them off on days that i am predisposed to have them.

Yes I get maybe a dozen or more of those a year, since I was about 12. Luckily they never involve a headache. Someone mentioned caffine, I've noticed that and also skipping breakfast (low blood sugar?) tend to be triggers. For some reason they seem to be getting more frequent as I get older.

I've seen some interesting artistic representations around the net, ie...

I have migraine without headaches, too. I was diagnosed by one of the top experts on migraine. He explained, that in migraine the blood vessels in the brain first contract. That is when sometimes people see auras. Some braincells are not receiving enough oxygen. Later the blood vessels expand, and then some get the headache.

I'm now on ACE inhibitor medication, so I don't get those very often.

i think that not all of them are caused by bloodflow problems. here is a very interesting article that might be helpful. http://www.headaches.org/education/NHF_ ... ive/CS_149

i've also seen FMRI films where you could see the electrical storm thingy going on. very cool, FMRIs....

bottom line, though, is that they're not dangerous. as long as you're sure that's what you are dealing with.

I just wanted to illustate the banana shaped scotoma that intrudes on my vision when I get them. But some of the worst attacks there is a general scintillation over my full feild of vision as well as the classic banana shaped scotoma

Here are two examples of when I am have one of my worst attacks compared to normal vision


The image above usually builds up to look something like this within 5 to 15 minutes with flashing scintillations spots over the whole field of vision


Over an hour later it returns to normal. Sometimes with a migraine but the really bad auras usually do not have them

Scotomas without headaches are called ocular migraines. I just started having migraines again after many years and did some Google searches to update myself. Most of my migraines were without visual effects, but now the scotomas start shortly after the headache shows up, and then fade away in about half an hour.

I sometimes see something similar, usually preceding a migraine but not always. I'm told its the ocular effects of migraines (ocular migraines and/or auras.)

I started getting migraines around age 33. Since I started medication for mild high blood pressure, I now have far fewer migraines.