Women with migraine have proved to have brain lesions detectable by scans. However, this does not mean that migraine will lead to brain disease. Future research in this area may shed new light upon how migraine affects brain function.

Summary

Middle-aged women who have migraine with aura have been shown to have infarct-like lesions on magnetic resonance imaging scans. But the significance of these is not understood and should not necessarily be a cause for concern. Instead, further study might lead to understanding of the role of migraine in brain functioning.

Introduction

Migraine is a common disorder of the blood vessels in the brain. It affects around one in ten adults and is more common among women. About a third of those with migraine experience an aura before pain sets in. Migraine is generally believed to be an episodic disorder – painful when it happens but having no long-term impact upon the brain. But recent research has suggested that migraine is associated with certain brain lesions, whose significance is not known.

What was done

Researchers at Uniformed Services University in Bethesda looked at the link between migraine with aura and brain lesions in a group of middle aged men and women. The lesions were infarct-like – that is, linked to tissue death and similar to those observed in stroke – and detected by magnetic resonance imaging. The study recruited 4,689 men and women in Iceland who were followed up since 1967 and had an average age of 51 at the time of the study.

What was found

Participants with mid-life migraine with aura were at increased overall risk of infarct-type lesions. Women with migraine were particularly prone to lesions in the cerebellum at the back of the brain. The study found that 23% of those in this group had such lesions compared to 15% of those without headache. There was no difference in cerebellar lesions found for men.

What this study means

These lesions are similar to those often found among older populations. But analysis shows that they do not occur because of traditional stroke risk factors. The link with migraine is not yet understood and this study should not prompt routine brain scans for those with migraine. Further study may, however, increase our understanding of migraine.

Source

Scher AI, Gudmundsson LS et al Migraine headache in middle age and late-life brain infarcts Journal of the American Medical Association June 24th 2009;301(24):2563-2570.