Are impaired endothelial function in the posterior cerebral circulation and intact endothelial function in the anterior cerebral and systemic circulation associated with migraine: A post hoc study

SummaryIt seems that migraine patients might suffer from localized and not systemic endothelial dysfunction. However, the probability whether impaired endothelial function in the posterior cerebral circulation, and intact endothelial function elsewhere is associated with migraine is not known. This is a post hoc study based on two of our previous published studies that evaluated cerebral and systemic endothelial function in 40 migraine patients (20 with (MwA) and 20 without aura (MwoA)) without comorbidities, and 20 healthy subjects. Cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) to l-arginine in the middle (MCA) and posterior (PCA) cerebral artery as well as flow mediated vasodilatation (FMD) were used for this purpose. The logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between CVR to l-arginine, FMD and migraine. We found a significant association between CVR to l-arginine in the PCA and migraine (OR: 0.38; CI 95%: 0.19–0.79; p = 0.01), but not between CVR to l-arginine in the MCA and migraine (OR: 0.74; CI 95%: 0.34–1.59; p = 0.44). Similar results were obtained in MwA and MwoA. We did not find any significant association between FMD and migraine (OR: 0.99; CI 95%: 0.83–1.19; p = 0.96). The same conclusion was reached in both migraine groups (MwA OR: 1.0; CI 95%: 0.83–1.19; p = 0.99, MwoA OR: 0.99; CI 95%: 0.81–1.21; p = 0.99). We could conclude that impaired endothelial function in the posterior cerebral circulation is associated with migraine, both MwA and MwoA, while intact endothelial function in the anterior cerebral and systemic circulation is not associated only with migraine.