Women who get migraines with a characteristic “aura” have a higher risk of stroke than women who do not suffer from this kind of debilitating headache, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.
Women who suffer migraines without an aura -- described as a glowing effect around objects as the headache develops -- do not seem to have a higher stroke risk, the researchers said.
The women with aura migraines had a 50 percent increased risk of total stroke and 70 percent higher risk of ischemic stroke -- the kind caused by a blockage, the researchers told a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in San Francisco.
Dr. Tobias Kurth of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues analyzed the records of 40,000 women in the Women’s Health Study, an ongoing trial examining the effects of aspirin and vitamin E on heart disease and cancer.
Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States, affecting 700,000 people in 2003 and killing 170,000.