Migraine and Pregnancy – Is the Combo Pregnant to Trigger Strokes?

Boston – There is a definite link between pregnancy, migraine and stroke, US researchers said. The combination appears to be a deadly one.

In fact, Cheryl Bushnell, assistant professor of neurology at the Duke University Center for Cerebrovascular Disease in Durham, explained that pregnant women who suffered migraine carried a risk of stroke, 19 times more than pregnant women who did not suffer migraine.

Elaborating on the risk, Cheryl Bushnell said, "In addition, pregnant women with migraine are 4.9 times more likely than women without migraine to suffer a heart attack and are twice as likely to have heart disease."

On the same breath, she also felt that data from hospital discharge databases cannot form the basis of determining the exact cause and effect relationship. There could be other inherent problems like a cardiovascular disease which could have triggered the migraine and the stroke.

Reiterating that these are only preliminary findings, she said, "Women with migraines that occur during pregnancy should be aware of their cardiovascular risk factors, particularly those that can be modified while pregnant."

A statistical analysis was carried involving more than 18 million pregnant women; 34000 of them had suffered migraine during 2000 to 2003. There were 97 cases of stroke and a negligible number died due to brain attacks.

Source-Medindia
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