[Migraine aura as the cause of apoplexy in young adults]

In the five year period 1972-1977, 27 patients aged 15-45 years were admitted to a neurological department in the Copenhagen area because of acute focal neurological deficits, lasting more than 24 hours and of presumably vascular origin i.e. stroke. In seven cases, the neurological deficits were of thromboembolic origin and in further seven cases the deficits occurred in relation to migraine with aura. Two cases were classified as migraine-equivalents. In the remaining eleven cases it was not possible to decide whether the persisting neurological deficits were of migrainous or thromboembolic origin. Nine of these 11 patients were women. Nine had headache and six had nausea/vomiting or photo/phonofobia. Cerebral angiography was performed in five of these 11 patients and in all the angiograms were normal. Migraine-aura was most probably the cause of the persisting deficits in some of these 11 patients. It is concluded, that migraine-aura is relatively often the cause of stroke in young adults.