Study on the relationship between migraine and right-to-left shunt

Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence of right-to-left shunt(RLS) in patients with migraine using the right heart contrast echocardiography.MethodsPatients with migraine were consecutively recruited from the Department of Neurology, Peking University People's Hospital. Patients were classified into three groups: migraine with aura, migraine without aura and possible migraine according to the standard of migraine diagnosis formulated by the International Headache Society in 2004. In addition, volunteers without the history of cardiac disease and headache were included as normal controls. The demographic characteristics, present and past history of patients were collected. The migraine disability assessment questionnaire was carried out in some patients. The incidence of RLS in each group was calculated and the correlation between the shunt volume of RLS and the severity of migraine was analyzed.ResultsOne hundred and twelve patients with migraine were included in this study, including 23 males and 89 females. Among them, nineteen were migraine with aura, 59 were migraine without aura and 34 were possible migraine.Twenty-five were included into the normal control group. The incidence of RLS was 73.7%, 49.2%, 50.0% and 16.0% in migraine with aura, migraine without aura, possible migraine and normal control, respectively. Compared with the control group, the incidence of RLS was significantly higher in groups of migraine with aura, migraine without aura and possible migraine(P 0.05). No significant correlation was found between the shunt volume of RLS and the degree of disability,the degree of headache, the frequency or duration of headache(P 0.05).ConclusionsThe incidence of RLS in migrainepatients is significantly higher than that in normal controls. There is no significant correlation between the shunt volume of cardiac RLS and the severity of the symptoms of migraine.