Adam Sprouse Blum, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of neurological sciences at UVM’s Larner College of Medicine, spoke with Healio about research showing that middle-aged and older patients with migraine and aura had increased risks for ischemic stroke, with the highest risks among men.
Sprouse Blum presented a poster, “Migraine and stroke risk in middle and older age: the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke cohort,” at the American Headache Society 67th Annual Scientific Meeting June 19–22 in Minneapolis.
“We already know that migraine, particularly migraine with aura, is associated with increased risk—about a twofold increased risk—of ischemic stroke,” Sprouse Blum told Healio. Physicians routinely counsel patients with migraine with aura to avoid cigarettes, contraceptives that include estrogen, and other risk factors for stroke, he continued, but “Most of our data come from patients under the age of 45 years,” he said.
To address this gap in data among middle-aged and older patients, Sprouse Blum and his colleagues examined findings from the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke, or REGARDS, cohort study.
Sprouse Blum noted two takeaways from this data:
- “People with migraine with aura have an increased stroke risk, and it appears this risk doesn’t go away when they get older,” he said.
- The second takeaway was surprising and “needs verification in another study,” he said. “There may be something going on in middle-aged males with migraine,” he said. “Maybe we should be screening middle-aged males for the presence of migraine in terms of thinking about their stroke risk.”