How many BAVs have migraine aura?

[PathFinder]

I am asking, because there is a mounting evidence of BAV with AVR, who suffer or have benn suffered an aura, particularly without headaches.

There are some trials, that BAV itself creates a specific pulstating vibrations, which predisposes the aorta, pulmonary artery and even the peripheral arteries to a fatigue of their arterial walls.

A trial with a 96 Hz vibrator, put in a dacron tube, developed an "aneurysm" of the tube, minutes after the start!

Robickseck and collegues prooved the vibratory nature of the BAV, simulating for first time a BAV in a simulation of aorta with sensors all over it.

The migraine aura perhaps is a result of such disturbancies of the arterial walls of the brain arteries. Their walls may be irritated by the low frequency vibrations.

These researches, however, are more relevant to the explanations of the arterial disorders in patients with congenital BAVs, since no culprit gene has been found, despite the enormous quantity of trials.

Almost all the certain investigators target their researches in that direction.

So, now, the poll is:
How many BAVs have, or had a migraine aura ever in their lives?

 

[PathFinder]

you see?

you see?

It's working

 

[pamela]

To help clarify here is a link to The Mayo Clinic - Migraine with Aura page.

I put my squiggles and other occular quirks down to the elevated internal eye pressures I have as part of some unspecified (and unacknowleged by my PCP) CTD. My mother had migraines pre-menopause but two years ago had her eye blow a hole through the back beside the retina. She's never been diagnosed with BAV or CTD either, although there are huge signs of something not quite right. Someday a doctor will listen and I'll get the referral to a geneticist I've been requesting.

 

[bird lady50]

head aches

head aches

I have a lot of head aches with my bav. I dont know if it is or not if the headaches or caused by my bav

 

[francie12]

Extremely interesting! My BAV son has aura, usually without headaches, and I have always, on the gut-level, felt that the two were connected. There is already a proven link between atrial septal defect and migraine. My son has had a "bubble study" to rule this out. (Pathfinder, have you had one? ASD sometimes comes along with BAV) Matt gets right-sided facial numbness, sometimes going down the arm and even leg along with his aura. Anybody else have that? (I suspect GERD is also connected to valve problems, but that is another story) Thanks for the post! I'd love to have the link to this study if it is in English.

 

[KristyW]

I had my BAV replaced in 2001. I have had the migraine auras for almost as long as I can remember. I still get them even after the replacement. I sometimes get headaches with them, and mostly I don't.

 

[Marguerite53]

Hm. Hope those with BAV who do NOT have migraine auras will vote!!

My auras started in high school, or at least that is when I first distinguished that something was wrong temporarily with my vision. AVR 36 years later....still get them with same frequency, duration , intensity, triggers.

Rarely headaches. Aura lasts 22-23 minutes every time. They kind of march across my visual field. When they get to the center (by my nose) I know they are just about gone. Seems to mostly be my left eye.

Marguerite

 

[Cooker]

I assume that BAV means bi-leaflet aortic valve?..I had no problem before or after my AVR?.

 

[geebee]

I am a mitral valve patient. I am posting (did not vote, tho) because I think migraines/auras are very common for all valve patients in general (or at least mitral and aortic). I cannot find it now (of course) but I remember reading about a study that indicates some migraines might be caused (at least pre-surgery)by micro tissue material breaking off from the damaged valves.

The vibration theory is very interesting as well. Thanks for this thread.

 

[Bina]

I assume that BAV means bi-leaflet aortic valve?..I had no problem before or after my AVR?.

Bicuspid Aortic Valve. A defect someone is born with.

 

[Diana]

I voted for my husband who has been suffering from migraines and migraine aura since he was a small child. Up until he was about 23-23 he would have probably two a week, sometimes the same one lasting for days, but now thankfully they have backed off to about once a month.

Diana

 

[Wise]

I've had auras, or what I now believe to be auras, three or four times. I've had a lot of migraines in recent years.

 

[Cooker]

Bicuspid Aortic Valve. A defect someone is born with.

That's me....defective since birth

 

[Sherry]

I didn't vote since I'm a mitral valver, but I have had them since my late teens until now (I'm 44). I've always been perplexed by the jiggly and flashy line episodes but never knew what to make of them. By the way, I don't ever get the headache, just the aura. I posted a Cleveland Clinic article about auras a few years back. Here's the link:

http://valvereplacement.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11418

 

[fireftr]

I would have never connected the two. I have these visual disturbances occasionally, rarely with a headache. I can close my eyes and see a light show when it happens (kinda weird). I am still not sold on the connection though. I have always chalked it up to other causes, such as fatigue or dehydration; or even looking into a bright light by accident. They typically go away after 15 minutes or so, but can be almost blinding at times. It makes it extra tricky when it happens at work and I have to function half blind .

Eric
BAV with regurg
In the waiting room

 

[Guest]

I have migraines, not frequent any longer, as long as I stay away from too much caffeine, certain prescription drugs, and hormones. I have had the aura post op, but this did not occur more frequently until they added flecanaide to the metoprolol to control the a-fib. Metoprolol is supposed to help with migraines. Once we stopped the flecanaide, the auras stopped. I'm off of the metoprolol too. I still get an occasional aura, with and without the headache.

Interesting theory indeed.

 

[PathFinder]

Here is a one review

Here is a one review

Here I poste a document, just published in the Am. J. Cardiol. about the BAV and the changing targets for searching of the culprit factors. As I said before, BAV is associated with arterial defects, but since no "BAV - Gene" can be found, despite the ENORMOUS researhes, the scientist begin to look in a much complicated hypotheses and theories: in the fluid-mechanics; hydraulic properties; tissue mechanics; and anothes parts of physics. Still, a part of the BAV population IS associated with a more generalized connective tissue disorder, but the genetical-hypothesis is not sufficient to explain the properties and the secrets of the bigger part of the BAV population.

A critical review of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association practice guidelines on bicuspid aortic valve with dilated ascending aorta.
Guntheroth WG.

University of Washington School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics (Cardiology), Seattle, WA, USA. [email protected] <[email protected]>

The 2006 practice guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recommend prophylactic aortic replacement for even an asymptomatic patient with a bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) when the aortic dimensions exceed arbitrary ranges based on Marfan syndrome, without comparing risk estimates of aortic dissection with operative risks. In the International Registry of Acute Aortic Dissection, which includes >1,000 autopsied subjects, the average age is 63 years; BAVs are found in only 3%, compared with histories of hypertension in 72%. The risk for valve-sparing aortic replacement is 4% and that for late mortality is 10%, on the basis of 5 publications. The aortic dimensions are from guidelines for Marfan syndrome, with a proved genetic weakness of connective tissue, whereas no culprit genes have been demonstrated in BAV. Although cystic medial necrosis is seen in dilated aortas associated with Marfan syndrome and BAV, it is also seen in dilated aortas with other causes. There is no convincing proof that cystic medial necrosis causes dissection or is simply an effect of dilatation. BAV is not associated with dilatation of the pulmonary arteries, in contrast to Marfan syndrome. Hemodynamic explanations for dilatation of the ascending aorta have been largely ignored because of a belief that it requires severe aortic stenosis or regurgitation. In conclusion, vascular dilatation without a genetic weakness is caused by coarse periodic vibrations from even trivial valve disorders, demonstrated experimentally. There is a natural history of progressive deterioration of the BAV, including the valve left in a valve-sparing aortic replacement, that makes the operation ill advised, as opposed to valve replacement with aortic reinforcement.

PMID: 18572046 [PubMed - in process]

All the greatest investigators of the bAV disease, like Fedak, Della Corte, Robicksek, Guntherot and many many others give their knowledges in seraching the of the "source". And all they reach to a same place: the place, where they find again, that the condition may cause many different phenotypes, whit different properties and different outcome.

One think is already clear: BAV is just a phenotypic appearance of different diseases.

Best regards,
Ivo

 

[Natanni]

I voted for my husband. He started to have migranes as a child, starting with a migrane aura he described as like looking through a kaleidescope, followed by the severe headache and nausea. His only way of coping when he was a child was to sit in a very dark room. His migranes were able to be controlled with Advil once it was available. He has went from cluster migranes monthly to two migranes since his BAV repair in Sept 2005. Talk about your nice little unexpected perk following surgery

 

[Bina]

I won't vote because I am not a BAV, but I have a long history of connective tissue problems and auras.
My heart murmur was discovered in my early twenties and that is when my Classic Migraine headaches also started. I would have the visual aura followed by headache and nausea... my only relief was to go into a dark room and lie down. This went on for several years until my stenosis got very bad, then I mostly just had the auras without any severe headache.
Now, post op I still get occasional visual auras lasting about 15-20 minutes, and no headache at all.

 

[tobagotwo]

I've had visual migraines since about five years before I had my AVR. However, I was not bicuspid. As such, I didn't vote.

Best wishes,