A study of prevalence of migraine in stroke patients and its association with ischemic versus hemorrhagic stroke: a cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: Migraine is characterized by recurrent attacks of disabling headache and autonomic nervous system dysfunction. Up to one third of patients also have neurological aura symptoms. It has been suggested that migraine can be a risk factor for stroke. Migraine affects three times the number of women than men. The incidence of stroke in men is two times that of women. It is shown in several studies that women aged 35 to 45 years old are at increased risk of ischemic stroke who had migraine with or without aura.Methods: The present cross sectional study was conducted in 350 consecutive patients of stroke who were attended OPD and admitted in wards of the Department of Medicine, M.G.M. Medical College and MY Hospital, Indore, MP, India, during period from December 2017 to December 2018.Results: The highest percentage of respondents i.e. 68% belonged to male group followed by 32% of respondents who were females. The highest percentage of respondents i.e. 66.6% had ischemic stroke while, 33.4% had hemorrhagic stroke. The highest percentage of respondents i.e. 90.9% had no Migraine while, 9.1% had Migraine. The highest percentage of respondents i.e. 31.2% had weekly reoccurrence, followed by forth nightly (25%) and lowest was 3.1% of daily recurrence. The association of type of stroke with sex group of patient’s history of headache which found to be significant (p ˂0.05). The association of type of stroke with sex group of patient’s history of various cerebro-vascular risk factors which found to be significant (p<0.05). Patients having hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke also had HTN in 47% and 12.4% patients respectively.Conclusions: In this study it is concluded that migraine can be established as a risk factor for ischemic stroke. Early diagnosis and treatment with available medication can be helpful in prevention or decreasing risk for developing stroke.