Discussion
migraine, headaches, headache, aortic stiffness
MIGRAINE, OTHER HEADACHE
We present a large study comparing early signs of vascular ageing in an unselected large cohort of adolescents with MA, with other headaches and without headache. In summary, our data indicate that there are no relevant differences in carotid-femoral PWV or cIMT in young patients with MA, other headaches or no headaches, respectively.Almost all previous research on this topic was conducted in adults. Even though smaller case-control studies yielded conflicting results with an increased PWV [So far, only two case-control studies have addressed the present research question in children and adolescents. In the one study, cIMT was increased in 57 migraine patients (aged 5–17 years) when compared to 47 healthy controls, even though no differences in vascular risk profile were seen [However, the pediatric population is especially suited to address our research question. Even though cIMT was in the normal range in every single study participant and PVW was in the normal range in 99.5% of study participants, we – as well as others – have shown that vascular risk behaviors and factors are already associated with both parameters of vascular health [When interpreting our results, one must keep in mind, that we only evaluated early structural vessel wall changes in the common carotid artery and that carotid-femoral PWV primarily measures aortic stiffness [The special strengths of our study are the community-based cohort setting, the large sample size, the high quality of the headache classification by a structured physician guided interview and the exact evaluation of EVA as well as of cardiovascular risk factors and behaviors.