Contactless Camera-Based Home Measurement of Pre-Attack Physiology in Migraine: A Longitudinal Feasibility Study
- 1Academie voor hoofdpijn en migraine
Abstract
AimTo develop and evaluate a contactless, camera-only method for measuring pre-attack physiology in migraine at home, and to assess its feasibility over four weeks.
MethodsIn this longitudinal observational feasibility study, adults with a neurologist diagnosis of migraine used a browser-based, camera-only application on their own device three times daily for four weeks. The application derived heart rate and heart-rate variability from facial video, together with proxies for eyelid and mouth movement and blink rate, each referenced to a person-specific baseline. Measurements within twelve hours before a self-reported attack were compared with attack-free measurements using linear mixed models, and individual prediction was tested with leave-one-subject-out cross-validation. The complete analysis was independently re-implemented and reproduced.
ResultsNine of thirteen recruited participants completed the study and contributed 549 measurements, with high data completeness (547 reliable). Heart rate was higher in the twelve hours before an attack than in attack-free periods (66.0 versus 60.4 beats per minute), confirmed by a mixed model (plus 5.54 beats per minute) and unchanged after adjustment for stress; no other signal differed after correction. Individual-level prediction remained weak (best cross-validated area under the curve 0.58).
ConclusionContactless, camera-only measurement of pre-attack physiology at home is feasible and reproducible. A group-level rise in heart rate was demonstrable but did not translate into usable individual prediction, motivating a larger study with electrocardiographic validation.
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BibTeX
@misc{gils2026contactless,
title = {{Contactless Camera-Based Home Measurement of Pre-Attack Physiology in Migraine: A Longitudinal Feasibility Study}},
author = {G. Van Gils},
howpublished = {medRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.13.26362930},
url = {https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.13.26362930v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Contactless Camera-Based Home Measurement of Pre-Attack Physiology in Migraine: A Longitudinal Feasibility Study
AU - G. Van Gils
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/13
PB - medRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.13.26362930
UR - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.13.26362930v1
AB - AimTo develop and evaluate a contactless, camera-only method for measuring pre-attack physiology in migraine at home, and to assess its feasibility over four weeks. MethodsIn this longitudinal observational feasibility study, adults with a neurologist diagnosis of migraine used a browser-based, camera-only application on their own device three times daily for four weeks. The application derived heart rate and heart-rate variability from facial video, together with proxies for eyelid and mouth movement and blink rate, each referenced to a person-specific baseline. Measurements within twelve hours before a self-reported attack were compared with attack-free measurements using linear mixed models, and individual prediction was tested with leave-one-subject-out cross-validation. The complete analysis was independently re-implemented and reproduced. ResultsNine of thirteen recruited participants completed the study and contributed 549 measurements, with high data completeness (547 reliable). Heart rate was higher in the twelve hours before an attack than in attack-free periods (66.0 versus 60.4 beats per minute), confirmed by a mixed model (plus 5.54 beats per minute) and unchanged after adjustment for stress; no other signal differed after correction. Individual-level prediction remained weak (best cross-validated area under the curve 0.58). ConclusionContactless, camera-only measurement of pre-attack physiology at home is feasible and reproducible. A group-level rise in heart rate was demonstrable but did not translate into usable individual prediction, motivating a larger study with electrocardiographic validation.
ER -