Cerebral autoregulation in migraine with aura: A case control study

Background Migraine with aura is independently associated with increased risk of ischemic stroke, especially in younger subjects. This association might be related to an impairment of cerebral autoregulation, which normally maintains cerebral blood flow independent of arterial blood pressure variations. Methods Patients aged 30–55, fulfilling ICHD-3 beta criteria for migraine with aura, were prospectively enrolled and compared with gender- and age-matched healthy controls without a history of migraine. Patients and controls with a history of stroke or any disease potentially impairing cerebral autoregulation were excluded. We assessed cerebral autoregulation with two different methods: Transfer function analysis, and the correlation coefficient index Mx. The transfer function phase and gain reflect responses of cerebral blood flow velocities to relatively fast fluctuations of arterial blood pressure, whereas Mx also reflects responses to slower arterial blood pressure fluctuations. Results A total of 22 migraine with aura patients (median age [IQR]: 39.5 [12.5] years) and 22 controls (39 [9.75] years) were included. Transfer function parameters and Mx were not different between patients and controls. However, Mx was inversely correlated with age in patients (ρ = −0.567, p = 0.006) and not in controls (ρ = −0.084, p = 0.509). Mx was also inversely correlated with migraine with aura duration (ρ = −0.617, p = 0.002), suggesting improvement of cerebral autoregulation efficiency with disease duration. Conclusions Cerebral autoregulation did not differ between patients and controls aged 30–55. However, cerebral autoregulation efficiency was strongly correlated with migraine with aura duration. Further studies in younger patients are needed to determine whether cerebral autoregulation is impaired early in the course of disease. Trial Registration NCT02708797.