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."