The following is a summary of “Changes of migraine aura with advancing age of patients,” published in the August 2023 issue of Headache and Pain by Scutelnic et al.
The characteristics of migraine with aura (MA), like the magnitude of cortical spreading depression (CSD), change as people get older, but clinical information is lacking related to this. Researchers performed a retrospective study to identify the age influence on MA clinical characteristics.
About 343 patients with a median age of 29 (IQR 28–52) were investigated using a set of organized questions. Questions were related to their headaches and symptoms, including specific aspects like the C-criterion. Advanced age association with MA characteristics was evaluated.
Out of 343 patients, 235 (69%) were females. Individuals experienced MA symptoms more often, such as aura spreading slowly for over 5 minutes (P < 0.001), multiple aura symptoms in series (P = 0.005), one aura symptom prevailing more than 60 minutes (P = 0.004), and having a headache with it. As people got older (P < 0.001), MA symptoms decreased. Younger patients had sensory (P < 0.001), motor (P = 0.004), and speech disturbance (P = 0.02), while older patients with headaches observed less photophobia (P = 0.04) and phonophobia (P = 0.03). Sensitivity analysis demonstrated similar results.
The study demonstrated that with increasing patients’ age, the recurrence of standard MA and headache characteristics decrease, which could complicate diagnosing MA in older people.
Source: thejournalofheadacheandpain.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s10194-023-01642-w
