Common heart defect causes children's migraines?
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by Aimee Keenan-Greene
A new study from the Primary Children’s Medical Center and the University of Utah to be published in the journal Pediatrics suggests a relationship between migraine headaches in children and a common heart defect.
Dr. Rachel McCandless and colleagues say about 15 percent of children suffer from migraines, and approximately one-third have migraines with aura.
Migraine headaches are caused by vasodilatation, enlargement of blood vessels, that release chemicals from nerve fibers that coil around the large arteries of the brain. Enlargement of these blood vessels stretches the nerves that coil around them and causes the nerves to release chemicals. The chemicals cause inflammation, pain, and further enlargement of the artery. The increasing enlargement of the arteries magnifies the pain, according to MedicineNet.
Migraines with aura include a collection of symptoms that can include weakness, blind spots, and even hallucinations.
Although the causes of migraines are unclear, the new study connects migraines and patent foramen ovale, which affects 25 percent of people in the U.S.
Scientists studied 109 children ages 6-18 who were diagnosed with migraines between 2008 and 2009.
The researchers took two-dimensional echocardiograms of each child’s heart, looking for a patent foramen ovale (PFO), a common defect in the wall between the two upper chambers of the heart.
Although a PFO is not necessarily dangerous, it can allow unfiltered blood to bypass the lungs and circulate throughout the body.
Of the studied children who had migraines with aura, 50 percent also had a PFO; this is nearly double the PFO rate of the general population.
Only 25 percent of children who had migraines without aura had a PFO.
McCandless says if a causal relationship can be established, closure of a PFO with a catheter device may help in the treatment of certain kinds of migraines, specifically migraines with aura.
The children were treated at the Primary Children’s Medical Center, which serves kids from Utah, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Colorado, and parts of Wyoming.
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