MedWire News: Women who suffer from migraine with aura face an increased risk of heart disease if they carry a certain gene variant, study findings suggest.

"Doctors should try to reduce heart disease risk factors and advise young women who experience migraine with aura not to smoke and to consider birth control pill alternatives as these increase the risk of ischemic vascular [blood vessel] problems," said lead researcher Dr Tobias Kurth, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

The researchers studied data on 25,001 women who participated in a long-term US health study.

At the start of the study, 3226 of the women reported that they suffered from migraine, of whom 40% suffered from migraine with aura - visual disturbances such as flashing lights, wavy lines and blurred vision that sometimes precede or accompany headaches.

During an average monitoring period of around 12 year, 625 of the women suffered a cardiovascular disease event, such as a heart attack or stroke.

Analysis revealed that migraine with aura sufferers who carried a particular gene variant, called MTHFR 677TT, were more than three times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease, and four times more likely to suffer a stroke than those without a history of migraines who did not have this variant.

Around 11% of the study participants carried this gene variant.

Dr Kurth commented: "This gene by itself does not appear to increase the risk for overall and for specific cardiovascular disease, but rather this research suggests a possible connection between the gene variant and migraine with aura."

He concluded: "While it is too early to start testing young women with migraine with aura for this gene variant, more focused research will help us to understand these complex links and will help us to potentially develop preventative strategies."