Patients who suffer from migraines may also be more likely to develop blood clots in their veins, new research suggests.
In a study of nearly 600 people in Italy age 55 and over, scientists found that 19 per cent of migraine sufferers had a history of at least one blood clot.
In comparison, of the subjects who did not suffer from migraine, only eight per cent had a history of blood clots.
The findings are published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
If a blood clot, also known as a venous thrombosis or thromboembolism, forms in a vein, it can impede blood flow and cause pain and swelling. If the clot dislodges from the vein, it can travel to the heart and lungs and kill the patient.
It is still unclear how migraines and venous thrombosis are linked. It is possible that the blood in migraine sufferers is more prone to clotting, the study said.
The researchers also used ultrasounds to check subjects for atherosclerosis, which is a hardening of the arteries.
They found that the migraine patients did not have a great likelihood of having a hardening or narrowing of their arteries.
"The thinking has been that because people with migraine are more likely to have strokes and other cardiovascular problems, that they would also have more severe and early atherosclerosis," said lead study author Dr. Stefan Kiechl of Innsbruck Medical University in Austria. "This study is the first to use high-resolution ultrasound to examine this theory, and it provides solid evidence to refute it."
