BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Migraine is a multifaceted primary headache disorder. In
neuroimaging of migraine, fMRI has been used to elucidate pathophysiology or monitor
treatment effects. The current literature, however, is highly heterogeneous regarding
reported variables and methodologies. This begets a lack of comparability and complicates
synthesis of results across studies. We developed a framework for standardized reporting
of fMRI studies in migraine.; METHODS: Experts on fMRI in migraine were identified
from the literature and subjected to structured questionnaires in 2 iterations of
3 rounds according to the DELPHI method. A total of 157 statements across 17 reporting
domains were rated on 5-point Likert scales (strong support to strong opposition).
The first iteration covered demographic data, migraine-specific factors, medication,
scan timing, healthy controls (HCs), participant sampling/recruiting, standardized
forms, study preregistration, region of interest (ROI) analyses, validation data sets,
data sharing, preprocessing documentation, and analysis software. The second iteration
of the questionnaire covered scanner-related factors, sequence-related factors, physiology
monitoring, and stimulation-related factors. Items showing strong consensus/consensus
(≥90%/≥75% of participants indicating scores 4 or 5) were included as standard reporting
items.; RESULTS: All 3 rounds of the first/second iteration were completed by 29 and
26 researchers (age 46 ± 11 years; 38% female/age 46 ± 12 years; 44% female) from
23 and 21 institutions. Across both iterations, strong consensus and consensus was
achieved for 34 (3 scanner-related factors, 9 sequence-related factors, 1 stimulation-related
factor, 2 demographic factors, 7 migraine-specific factors, 2 medication-factors,
2 scan timing factors, 4 HC factors, 1 preregistration factor, 1 analysis software
factor, and 2 ROI analyses factors) and 33 (1 scanner-related factors, 4 sequence
related factors, 1 factor related to physiology monitoring, 1 stimulation-related
factor, 3 demographic factors, 6 migraine-specific factors, 4 medication factors,
3 HC factors, 2 sampling factors, 1 standardized form, 1 preregistration factor, 1
data sharing factor, 2 analysis software factors, and 3 ROI analyses factors) items,
respectively. From these, a checklist covering 63 items from 14 reporting domains
was created.; DISCUSSION: We present an expert-based framework for reporting standards
in fMRI studies of migraine, which can be used for future studies to homogenize cohort
characterization, fMRI acquisitions, and analysis protocols.
