Patent foramen ovale and migraine in ischemic stroke patients: incidence, pathogenetic interrelation and the effects of endovascular closure

BACKGROUND: Migraine is a chronic neurovascular disease with high incidence rate and medical-social significance. Despite more than half a century of studying the disease, the pathogenesis of migraine is not yet completely clear. The results of separate research works demonstrate the inter-relation of migraine with the presence of patent foramen ovale and circulation shunting from the right side to the left one. AIM: Detailing the incidence rates and the clinical characteristics of migraine, as well as the effects of endovascular installation of the occluding device into the patent foramen ovale in terms of migraine course in a cohort of patients that had an ischemic stroke episode according to the mechanism of paradoxical embolism due to having a functionally significant patent foramen ovale. METHODS: The examined population included 97 patients aged from 18 to 50 years old (mean age 32.29±2.19 years; 70.8% females), undergoing examination procedures at the Research Center of Neurology from January 2018 until October 2023. All the patients previously had an ischemic stroke that had involved the mechanism of paradoxical embolism, associated with the presence of patent foramen ovale and high functional significance shunting. All the patients underwent an assessment of their conditions associated with the presence of a patent foramen ovale — migraine with or without aura, other procedures included the detailing of headache characteristics and of the effects of migraine on social adaptation. The endovascular intervention was performed in 61 patients. Dynamic follow-up data were obtained for 36 patients, of which 24 migraine patients had an assessment of headache characteristics before and after the foramen ovale closure. RESULTS: Within the cohort of patients with patent foramen ovale accompanied with functionally significant shunting and with a previous episode of ischemic stroke, the incidence of migraine was 39.2% (no aura — 21 patients or 55%; with aura — 17, or 45%), while the proportions of women and men being 1.9:1. The rate of headache attacks was 4 [1; 7] days per month. In 6 months after the installation of the foramen ovale occluder, migraine patients were showing a significant decrease in the rate of headache onsets from 4 [2; 24] to 2 [1; 5] days a month (р=0.009); a decrease was reported for pain intensity from 7 [7; 9] to 3 [3; 7] points of the visual analogue scale for pain (р=0.0001) along with a decrease in the degree of migraine affecting the patients’ everyday activity from 20 [6; 89] to 17 [2; 26] points (р=0.019) of the MIDAS questionnaire. CONCLUSION: The present research has confirmed the high incidence found in a cohort of patients with patent foramen ovale. Installation of the occluder resulted in a decrease in the rate and intensity of headache along with a decrease of migraine affecting the social adaptation. The research limitations were a small number of patients and the absence of data on the residual shunting circulation.