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CV risk factors common in patients with acute migraine
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Results from the American Migraine Prevention and Prevalence study reveal that 18% of patients with acute migraine had a contraindication to prescription drugs for migraine from the triptan class, based on CV events or CV procedures such as PCI or CABG surgery.
The data are from an evaluation of 6,723 people with migraine who were identified by screening a representative sample of more than 160,000 Americans.
In other results, men had a slightly higher risk for CV events and procedures vs. women (19.5% vs. 18%). Risk also increased with age, from 11% for patients aged younger than 40 years to 19.7% for those aged 40 to 59 years and 34% for those older than 60 years, according to a press release.
The triptan class of medication is the most widely used for migraines. The FDA recommends that migraine patients with CVD risk factors be evaluated for silent myocardial ischemia before receiving a triptan and, in some cases, receive their first dose in a medically supervised setting.
“Overall, we estimate that there are 5.2 million Americans over the age of 18 [years] with migraine for whom triptan medications are contraindicated,” Dawn Buse, PhD, associate professor of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and study co-investigator, said in the release.
Researchers said despite the efficacy of triptans, only a small percentage are used.
“Low rates of treatment are due in part to CV events and disease and in part to worry about CVD on the part of prescribing clinicians and people with migraine,” said Richard Lipton, MD, professor and vice chair of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, director of Montefiore Headache Center and the study’s primary investigator.
Disclosure: The American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention study is funded through a research grant to the National Headache Foundation from Ortho-McNeil Neurologics Inc. Additional analyses were supported by a grant from CoLucid Pharmaceuticals to the National Headache Foundation. The CoLucid Pharmaceuticals pipeline includes lasmiditan, a treatment for migraine.