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Kongress Medizin und Gesellschaft 2007

17. bis 21.09.2007, Augsburg

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Migraine and biomarkers of cardiovascular disease in women

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  • Tobias Kurth - Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
  • Paul M Ridker - Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
  • Julie E. Buring - Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Kongress Medizin und Gesellschaft 2007. Augsburg, 17.-21.09.2007. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2007. Doc07gmds602

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/gmds2007/07gmds602.shtml

Published: September 6, 2007

© 2007 Kurth et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Objective: To evaluate the association between migraine and biomarkers of cardiovascular disease in a large cohort of women free of cardiovascular disease.

Background: Migraine, particularly migraine with aura, has been associated with an unfavorable cardiovascular risk profile and increased risk of cardiovascular disease, including ischemic stroke and coronary heart disease. However, data on the association between migraine and cardiovascular biomarkers are sparse.

Methods: Cross-sectional analyses of 27,626 apparently healthy women aged >45 years who participated in the Women’s Health Study, for whom we had information on migraine and measured biomarkers at study entry (1992-1995). Self-reported migraine and aura status was evaluated with levels of total cholesterol, low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C and HDL-C), non-HDL-C, apolipoprotein A-1 and B100, lipoprotein (a), C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen, soluble intracellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), homocysteine, and creatinine. The highest quintiles of biomarker levels among non-postmenopausal hormone users were defined as elevated biomarkers.

Results: A total of 5087 (18.4%) women reported any history of migraine (3585 reported active migraine and 1502 prior migraine). Of the women with active migraine, 39.7% reported aura. Compared with women with no migraine history and after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors, women who reported any history of migraine had modestly but significantly increased odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of 1.09 (1.01-1.18) for total cholesterol, 1.14 (1.05-1.23) for non-HDL-C, 1.09 (1.01-1.18) for apolipoprotein B100, and 1.13 (1.05-1.22) for CRP. These increases were most apparent among women who reported prior migraine and did not meaningfully differ among active migraineurs according to aura status.

Conclusions: In this large cohort of women, we found only modest associations between migraine and adverse levels of certain cardiovascular biomarkers. Our results suggest that these biomarkers are an unlikely explanation for the observed association between migraine with aura and cardiovascular disease.