There
is no difference between female patients with and without migraine for
subclinical (silent) brain infarcts and white matter hyperintentisies (WMHs).
Migraine is prevalent in more than 10% of the female
population. Out of these, migraines with aura is seen in one out of three
patients, who experience transitory neurological symptoms in association with
their migraine attacks. The earlier stuides raised an issue regarding the
association between migraines and an
elevated risk of silent brain infarcts and white matter hyperintensities,
specially in women suffering from migraine with aura. The increase in risk of
dementia resulted from the silent brain
infarcts and WMHs. As per research team leader Dr David Gaist of the Odense
University Hospital and University of Southern Denmark, " This prompted us
to evaluate whether women with migraine with aura might be more likely to have
evidence of silent brain infarcts and an increased load of white matter
hyperintensities on their brain scans."
The Danish Twin Registry was used by the researchers to
identify women aged 30 to 60 years. All in all 172 women with migraine with
aura (cases), and 139 unrelated women with no migraine (controls) were
recognised by this nationwide registry. They underwent MRI brain imaging at a
single centre. Also, 34 co-twins who, unlike their participating twin sisters,
did not encounter migraine with aura, were also scanned.
Dr. Gaist said, "We found no evidence of an
association between migraine with aura and silent brain infarcts or white
matter hyperintensities. This held true for the main analyses comparing cases
with unrelated controls, and for analyses focusing on twin pairs where one twin
suffered from migraine with aura, and the other did not. We believe patients
suffering from migraines with aura and their physicians should find these
results re-assuring."
BRAIN: A journal of neurology
No evidence of an association between silent brain infarcts and having migraine with aura
David Gaist et al.
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