Midlife migraine with aura linked to brain lesions in elderly women
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Jun 29, 2009
MedWire News: Women who suffer from migraines with aura are more likely to show evidence of brain lesions in old age than other women, researchers have found.
However, Dr Lenore Launer, from the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and team say that further research is needed to investigate the clinical significance of brain lesions in such women.
“Migraine is considered to be an episodic condition with no long-term consequences,” explain the researchers in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “However, recent studies suggest that migraine attacks may be associated with pathologic changes in the brain, particularly in the cerebellum.”
To investigate further, the team studied 4689 participants (57% women) who were interviewed about migraine symptoms in midlife, at an average age of 51 years.
More than 26 years later, all the participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging scans, which revealed brain lesions in 39% of men and 25% of women.
Analysis revealed that women who suffered from migraine with aura – visual or other sensory disturbance that occurs before the migraine starts, such as seeing bright lights – were 1.9 times more likely to have brain lesions, particularly in the cerebellar region of the brain, in old age than women who did not suffer from headaches.
There was no link between midlife migraine with aura in men and an increased risk of brain lesions. Furthermore, migraine without aura and non-migraine headaches were not associated with brain lesions in old age.
Dr Launer and team conclude: “We found that women who reported migraine with aura in middle age were at increased risk of late-life infarcts relative to those without migraine symptoms.”
They add that, although the finding “is consistent with the hypothesis that migraine with aura in midlife is associated with late-life vascular [blood vessel] disease in the cerebellum and in women…, the clinical implications of the infarct-like lesions identified have not been established and will require investigation”.
