Chest pain complaints often lead to suspicion of cardiovascular disease. As a retrospective analysis of the database showed, patients with migraine complained of chest pain more often than patients not suffering from migraine (21 vs. 14%, P <0.01).
However, with the established diagnosis of migraine in the course of this study, cardiovascular pathology was not always detected, which led to a doubt in the importance for migraine of a symptom such as chest pain.
Particular concern about coronary heart disease in patients with migraine, is fully justified due to the presence of risk factors for the development of cardiac pathology.
A special study of the genetics and epidemiology of migraine, conducted in the Netherlands, assessed the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases in 5755 adults from the general population. Evaluation was performed based on the presence or absence of migraine. The figure shows the significant risk factors in patients suffering from migraine.
The risk was higher among patients suffering from migraine with aura than among those without aura. Thus, the results of the analysis of data from the Framingham study for a 10-year period showed that the risk of myocardial infarction or ischemic heart disease in patients suffering from migraine with aura (OR = 4.01, 95% CI = 1.1-15.0), was significantly higher than with a migraine without aura (ORV = 1.84, 95% CI = 0.7-5.0).