Study: Migraines Linked to More Brain Lesions Among Women

Results of a new study show that women who have migraines more commonly have brain lesions, which is associated with cognitive decline.

A new study shows that women who experience migraines have shown a higher prevalence and greater increase in deep white matter hyperintensities (brain lesions) than those who do not. However, the number, frequency, and severity of the migraines the women experienced were not associated with lesion progression.

The study, published this week in theJournal of the American Medical Association, looked at the association between migraine frequency, brain lesions, and cognitive decline. 286 participants in the 2000 Cerebral Abnormalities in Migrane Epidemiological Risk Analysis were given MIR scans in 2009. Researchers found that 77% of the women in the migrane group had progression of brain lesions, compared to 60% of the control group. Among men, no association was found between migraines and brain lesions. The results were controlled for age, sex, hyper tension, diabetes, and level of education.

“In addition, the number of migraines, frequency of migraines, migraine severity, type of migraine, and migraine therapy were not associated with lesion progression,” said the study’s authors. “Increase in deep white matter hyperintensity volume was not significantly associated with poorer cognitive performance at follow-up.”

In the past, brain lesions have been associated with cognitive decline, as well as atherosclerotic disease risk factors and an increased risk of ischemic stoke. Migraines affect up to 15% fo the general population, according to the study’s authors.

“In summary, in a community-based cohort followed up for 9 years, migraine was associated only with a higher incidence of deep white matter brain changes among women,” said the study’s authors. “There were no significant associations of migraine with progression of other brain lesions among women, and there were no associations of migraine headache with progression of any brain lesions among men. These findings raise questions about the role of migraine headaches with progression of cerebral vascular changes. The functional implications of MRI brain lesions in women with migraine and their possible relation with ischemia and ischemic stroke warrant further research.”

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In Brain-Injured Children, Early Gesturing Predicts Language Delays

ScienceDaily (Mar. 26, 2010) — About 1 in 4,000 infants has a brain injury known as pre- or perinatal brain lesions, mainly as a result of stroke, with risk factors involving both mothers and babies. Children with early brain lesions that affect one side of the brain often take longer to reach early language milestones; these delays normalize for many but persist for some. New research has found that children's gesturing at 18 months can identify those children who will have these later language delays.

Researchers at the University of Chicago carried out the work, which can be found in the March/April 2010 issue of the Child Development journal.

The study looked at gestures such as pointing or waving goodbye in 11 18-month-olds as a way of predicting later vocabulary delays. The researchers considered gesture because recent studies have found it to be a good predictor of later language abilities in typically developing children. The children's language comprehension was tested when they were 30 months old.

The researchers found that gesturing at 18 months (but not early speech) predicted which children with lesions had vocabulary delays a year later. The results suggest that gesture may be a tool for diagnosing persistent language delay in children with brain lesions.

These findings have both diagnostic and therapeutic implications, according to the authors of the study, Susan C. Levine, Stella M. Rowley Professor of Psychology, and Susan Goldin-Meadow, Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor, both in the Department of Psychology, Comparative Human Development, and the Committee on Education at the University of Chicago....

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abstract here

Early Gesture Predicts Language Delay in Children With Pre- or Perinatal Brain Lesions

"Does early gesture use predict later productive and receptive vocabulary in children with pre- or perinatal unilateral brain lesions (PL)? Eleven Children with PL were categorized into 2 groups based on whether their gesture at 18 months was within or below the range of typically developing (TD) children. Children with PL whose gesture was within the TD range developed a productive vocabulary at 22 and 26 months and a receptive vocabulary at 30 months that were all within the TD range. In contrast, children with PL below the TD range did not. Gesture was thus an early marker of which children with early unilateral lesions would eventually experience language delay, suggesting that gesture is a promising diagnostic tool for persistent delay."

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01413.x/abstract