The Association between Migraine and Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study.

Jou-Yu Lin,Chih-Yuan Lin,Wu-Chien Chien,Che-Se Tung,Shih-Hung Tsai,Chi-Hsiang Chung,Jen-Chun Wang

doi:10.3390/ijerph18084389

Abstract

Previous studies have indicated that patients with migraine have a higher prevalence of risk factors known to be associated with cardiovascular diseases. There are also shared epidemiology and molecular mechanisms between migraine and abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). We hypothesized that patients with migraine could have an increased risk of AAA. To test this hypothesis, we used the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) to evaluate whether associations exist between migraine and AAA. The data for this nationwide population-based retrospective cohort study were obtained from the NHIRD in Taiwan. The assessed study outcome was the cumulative incidence of AAA in patients with migraine during a 15-year follow-up period. Among the 1,936,512 patients from the NHIRD, 53,668 (2.77%) patients were identified as having been diagnosed with migraine. The patients with migraine had a significantly higher cumulative risk of 3.558 of developing an AAA 5 years after the index date compared with the patients without migraine. At the end of the 15-year follow-up period, a significantly higher incidence of AAA (0.98%) was observed in the patients with migraine than in those without migraine (0.24%). We revealed an association between the development of migraine and AAA.

Highlights

Among the 1,936,512 patients in the LHID 2005–2015 from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), 53,668 patients were identified as having been diagnosed with migraine
There were no significant differences in sex, age, comorbidities or the number of medical follow-up visits between the groups with and without migraine after matching (Table 1)
The results showed that males with migraine had a 5.976-fold increased risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) compared with females without migraine (Figure 3)

Summary

Introduction

Migraine affects as many as 25% of women by their mid-to-late 30s, nearly 15% of the population and approximately one billion people worldwide [1]. Previous studies have indicated that patients with migraine have an increased risk of several intracranial pathologies, such as stroke, subcortical small vessel diseases and increased carotid intimal thickness [2,3,4]. Patients with migraine have a higher prevalence of risk factors known to be associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), including hypertension, hyperlipidemia and smoking [5,6,7,8]. There are risk factors and epidemiological and molecular mechanisms that are shared between migraine and abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA).

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Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion