BALTIMORE, Aug. 9 -- Women who have migraine with visual symptoms have a 50% greater risk of ischemic stroke than women without the headaches, researchers reported.
Smoking, use of oral contraceptives, and onset of the headaches with aura a year before the stroke also increased the risk, Leah R. MacClellan, M.S.P.H., of the University of Maryland, and colleagues, reported in the Aug. 10 issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
On the other hand, the researchers found no association between stroke and migraine without aura.
And the chance that a young woman in the 15-to-44-age group with migraine and aura will have an ischemic stroke is low-one-to-two for every 10,000 women each year, said Steven J. Kittner, M.D., a study co-author and director of the Maryland Stroke Center here.
