How many BAVs have migraine aura?

[Duff Man]

If you look at the study of Fedak and collegues "Vascular remodeling of patints with congenital bicuspid aortic valve", you will see, that there is evidence of systemic deficiency of connective tissue elements, like fibrillin-1. There are also evidenced deficiencies of eNOS. There are elevated productions of MMP's, triggering aortic dilatations. However, these findings are not sufficient to do the conclusion for the BAV disease at all! The reason... there are too much BAV persons in those studies, whos structural and molecular and histological statuses compare the general. Plus - there is trend of hereditary bAV in only 15-30% of the patients. What about the others? That's why, the investigators are targeting their researches in some other, more complicated mechanisms, which may explain the BAV in non-familial, or non-genetical BAV.

Best regards,
Ivo

I think I get what you're saying now, but tell me if I'm wrong: There could be something as simple as vibrations from the BAV causing issues within the blood vessels, and stuff like that....? Or (going out on a limb) maybe something like hemolysis from the odd shape and turbulence of the BAV can cause problems...?

 

[PathFinder]

Yeeessss

Yeeessss

That is, what I expected - to see patients, whose series of migraine +/- aura attacks stop or decrease, in general after their valve replacements. This supports more the theory.

Here I poste a part of a study from 2007. Please read it:

We found a significantly higher prevalence of MA+ in patients with congenital heart disease, not only with but also without an obligate right-to-left shunt, when compared with the prevalence in the general population. Until now, the assumed link between migraine and congenital heart disease concentrated almost only on right-to-left shunting and the hypothesis of vasoactive agents entering the systemic circulation without being filtered in the lung vessels.1,2 However, the data of our study suggest that, besides a right-to-left shunt, the presence of a random congenital heart defect was also a significant determinant for the increased prevalence of MA+. These data agree with previous findings that a dominant inheritance of a predisposition to cardiac abnormalities, which were not limited to patent foramen ovale, atrial septal defect or other right-to-left shunts, was associated with the occurrence of migraine.5 In addition, we confirmed the association between migraine and rising haematocrit levels. Migraine, due to augmented haemoglobin levels, might be caused by the activation of blood compounds and the endothelium due to shear stress. Therefore, hyperviscosity could be another explanation (besides the hypothesis of vasoactive substances) for the highest prevalence of MA+ in patients with congenital heart disease and an obligate right-to-left shunt, which resulted in secondary polyglobulia.

However, we have to take into account that our data are based on a small population of a single centre and that both selection and recall bias might be present.

We can conclude that the aetiology of migraine remains an enigma; however, we would like to emphasise that the origin, as well as the facilitating factors, of attacks is multifactorial.

And then again, you may read the previews article I put, about the hemodynamic alteration and vessel-stress, prooved to appear with the BAV.

I want very much to be more clear in my suggestions, guys, but I'm a bulgarian and my english is only at an amateaur level.

Best regards,
Ivo

 

[Duff Man]

Dude, that's really interesting. Glad I figured out what you meant

They should do a randomized study on the effects of just blood thinning for people with congenital heart defects.

 

[MNmom]

Hi there, I used to have migranes when I was in high school- so bad I had a prescription on hand and was told to take them when I would start getting what I called the "flashes of light" They pretty much went away in college, though I would still get the flashes (aura). I continue to get it. I had my BAV replaced at 20 with tissue and now with mechanical- have had at least one episode of the aura in the last 8 weeks since Ive been out of surgery. Thinking back, I had a horrible migrane while in the hospital after my first surgery 11 years ago- it kept me in one extra day, in fact!
Interesting studies out there- I think anyone could find a correlation with any two issues sometimes.

 

[Butterfly]

Cured my miagraine

Cured my miagraine

My mother had miagraine and was not diagnosed with BAV.
I have BAV and have suffered relatively frequent miagraines (with aura)and cluster miagraines , until the last several years when I began supplementing with magnesium. Since supplementing I haven't had a miagraine attack save for a couple of times when I ran out of magnesium or forgot to supplement for several days.

There has been a lot written about the miagraine/magnesium link and it seems to work for some people. The Life Extension Foundation and many alternative health websites discuss the depletion of magnesium from soils and therefore from the foods we ingest. They also suggest that many people have lower than ideal levels of bodily magnesium that is apparently needed for many bodily functions.

I asked my cardiologist about supplementing with magnesium and he wasn't concerned that I did so . I also don't take any regular medications. If wanting to try magnesium for miagraine it would be best to seek out medical advice before doing so.

I hope this helps some people to find relief from their headaches and the nauseating affect of the aura . Looking back I wish I had known of magnesium sooner as the effect that miagraine has had on on life at certain points has been quite debilitating.

 

[CCRN]

What?

What?

Can someone tell me the exact difinition of a "Visual Migraine"? I had visual disturbances of double and kalidiscope (sp?) vision for years before my valve and aortic replacement and still have some of the same when my INR is low. I'm not sure if I should vote yes because, even though I had the vision thing, I don't recall a headache. I DO recall pulling over to the side of the road until the darn thing passed if I was driving when it happened.

 

[PathFinder]

eNOS

eNOS

Just about an hour I have read few studies of the shear & tutbulent stress over the endothelial cells. Their conclusions show alteration and disturbances of the production/secreting of endothelial nictric oxide syntase (eNOS). It may even alter the gene's working or somethink. As I mentioned before, eNOS is one of the candidate genes for migraine aura.

What is more interesting for me, was that they found even a corelation with the mitral valve prolapse (chordaes related). They found an alteration of the fluid dynamics in the outflow tract of the LV, where the wall stress had also a specific alteration, giving to the aorta an abnormal/turbulent flow! However they mentioned only the chordae of the anterior mitral leaflet, which is continuous with the tissue of the aortic root and aortic valve cusps (they have common embryonic origin).

That means, that soon we all may start a large poll/thread, similar to this, where not only the BAV, but also some MVP patients may participate.

Ivo

 

[Butterfly]

Maybe this is why Supplemented Magnesium Works?

Maybe this is why Supplemented Magnesium Works?

I haven't really looked too far into the reason that supplementing magnesium keeps my miagraines at bay however I was encouraged by some of the posts to look further into this and more especially the link to eNOS and found this article.


From Pub/Med.
High concentrations of magnesium modulate vascular endothelial cell behaviour in vitro.Maier JA, Bernardini D, Rayssiguier Y, Mazur A.
University of Milan, Department of Preclinical Sciences-LITA Vialba, Via GB Grassi 74, 20157 Milano, Italy. [email protected]

Magnesium supplementation has been reported to prevent cardiovascular diseases through the decrease of plasma lipids and to improve endothelial function in patients with coronary artery disease. In the present work, we evaluated whether high magnesium concentrations can directly affect the function of cultured endothelial cells, which play a crucial role in maintaining the functional integrity of the vascular wall. We cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells for various times in media containing different concentration of magnesium (range 2 to 10 mM) and compared them to the corresponding controls (1 mM Mg). High Mg concentrations stimulated endothelial proliferation, enhanced the motogenic response to angiogenic factors and attenuated the response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In addition, we demonstrate that high concentrations of magnesium did not modulate the levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, but enhanced the synthesis of nitric oxide, in part through the up-regulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase. Our results demonstrate a direct role of magnesium in maintaining endothelial function. We therefore anticipate that magnesium may have a protective effect against atherosclerosis and could play a role in promoting the growth of collateral vessels in chronic ischemia. Moreover, because it induces the synthesis of nitric oxide, this cation could be a helpful tool in hypertension as well as in preventing thrombosis.

PMID: 15158908 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Related ArticlesLow magnesium promotes endothelial cell dysfunction: implications for atherosclerosis, inflammation and thrombosis. [Biochim Biophys Acta. 2004] Magnesium and microvascular endothelial cells: a role in inflammation and angiogenesis. [Front Biosci. 2005] Effect of an estrogen/statin combination on biochemical markers of endothelial function in human coronary artery cell cultures. [Menopause. 2001] Adherence of uremic erythrocytes to vascular endothelium decreases endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression. [Kidney Int. 2005] 16K-prolactin inhibits activation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase, intracellular calcium mobilization, and endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation. [Endocrinology. 2004] » See all Related Articles...

Cheers

 

[Andrew'sMom]

interesting topic! andrew gets headaches about 2 times a month,at least that's how often they bother him enough to make him complain about it to me. I consider that "often" for a 7 year old. He has always gotten headaches, and he is the only 1 of my 4 boys who does get them. he has never mentioned any visual disturbances, but I will ask him next time he has a headache. I myself (healthy heart) DO get the auras, which my dr calls "occular migraines." In fact,just had a brief episode a few days ago.

 

[cday]

He has always gotten headaches, and he is the only 1 of my 4 boys who does get them. he has never mentioned any visual disturbances, but I will ask him next time he has a headache.

It is so hard with children since they don't know anything different they may think everyone has that. One of our boys had convergence insufficency and thought everyone saw two baseballs coming toward them. When it was finally diagnosed he asked, "So which baseball do I catch?" Then he concluded, "It is always the one on the right."

 

[cday]

Can someone tell me the exact difinition of a "Visual Migraine"? I had visual disturbances of double and kalidiscope (sp?) vision for years before my valve and aortic replacement and still have some of the same when my INR is low. I'm not sure if I should vote yes because, even though I had the vision thing, I don't recall a headache. I DO recall pulling over to the side of the road until the darn thing passed if I was driving when it happened.

Here is how I believe each is defined:

Classic Migraine: Aura followed by pain

Ocular Migraine: Aura no pain

Non-Classic: pain no aura

Cluster: Migraine on steriods

So a Visual Migraine would be a Ocular Migraine.

An aura can be a couple of things I know of:
a blind spot (that would remain no matter which eye you cover),

flashes of light (I can only see these if I am in a dark room with my eyes closed, don't know if that holds true for everyone),

and squiggly lines that cross your field of vision (can be seen with eyes open).

Auras are different from the "floaters" people get as they age as the actual inner eyeball gel changes and causes dark shadows to be cast across the retina.

Cindy

 

[Dawn-Marie]

Around the time i went into congestive heart failure in November, i started getting what my doctor said were "optical migraines", where i would see zigzag lines all over in my side vision, and the only place i didn't have them was when i looked straight ahead. No pain at all. I've only had them happen a couple times since then, thank goodness. My doctor had no idea why i started getting them. He didn't connect them to my valve problem. Dawn-Marie

 

[ottagal]

This is very interesting information. Just over a year ago, I started noticing kaleidoscope-like white dots in my peripheral vision that would last for about a half hour. It has been occurring on and off since the first episode. I would not have a headache with it. In addition, I noticed that at times when I read the lines on the page seem to jump on. It is difficult to explain. I am near-sighted and thought it could be my contact lenses. When I asked my eye doctor about this, he said that it could be a type of migraine. So...that would put me in the yes category! I never thought of this as being a possible connection to a bicuspid aortic valve.

 

[debrap]

As a teen I had "Classic" migraines, but once into adulthood they became more of an aura or just visual disturbances,, such as the double vision, and lights triggering episodes of flashed and squiggles lasting 20 to 30 minutes. All with no headache pain. Had a cat scan done to rule out tumors in my brain, and finally an eye specialist diagnosed "Migraine" . I have been asymptomatic until 18 months ago, when I ended up going to the er for chest pain several hours after an outpatient surgery to repair a broken nose. Since then the visual disturbances have increased along with my other symptoms. I wouldn't wish it on anyone else, but I'm glad I am not just imagining it all.

 

[Rick]

I have BAV. I've had migraines with an aura since age 12 or so and have even had episodes where I could not speak -- jumbled syllables - because the migraine was so intense.

Rick

 

[Enzo & Ziti]

BAV Aura

BAV Aura

I was diagnosed with BAV at 18 and suffered from migraine aura with no headache since age 12. I continued to have the auras all the way up to my AVR surgery 4 weeks ago and had more episodes while in the step down unit at the hospital.

However, I've had no recent episodes since I've been home. Coincidence?

 

[JeffM]

I've been getting classical migraines since I was 18. I'm 52 now. I often get pain, but I always get the aura, sometimes without pain. I typically get migraines during stressful periods. I would love to wake up a year after AVR and realize that I haven't had a migraine for a year!

 

[JeffM]

Forgot to mention

Forgot to mention

For a couple years (I rarely get them any more), I was getting ocular migraines several times a day. No pain at all and there didn't seem to be any connection to my usual migraines. I thought I was developing a brain tumor until my GP told me what they are. I have no idea what to make of that.

 

[lucky401]

I have been getting migraine auras for yearswith not pain. After my surgery in June I was getting up to 5 or more a day. Before surgery they were infrequent. Now I get them about 5 times a week. So it is much better.

 

[xbxb]

Occular Migraines

Occular Migraines

I have had a BAV repair 3 yrs ago. Up to that time I would occular migraines approx 1 per week, though I did not know what they were. A year or so before my surgery my cardiologist figured out that what I was experiencing was occular migraines. The cure was to keep some caffiene tablets with me - and at the first sign take a No Doz. I did this and the headache went away almost immediately. My Dr. explained that the blood vessels behind the eye contract cutting off flow - thats why I would get the funny vision. The caffiene counter acts and dilates the vessels. The key is to catch it and take the caffiene AS SOON AS you get the symptons. Now 3 yrs post op after my BAV repair and root replacement I get migraines much less - maybe one time a month?
I do however always keep a caffiene pill or a cup of coffee close if I feel I am getting a migraine. Any one ever try this?