How many BAVs have migraine aura?

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How many BAVs have migraine aura?


  • Total voters
    31
  • Poll closed .
I've only had a few headaches that felt crippling like migraine sufferers report... and actually I've had just as seldom weird visual disturbances. Never had a name for it until now, but I remember one time my left eye looked like I was looking out of cracked glass in the peripheral. So I don't know, I guess I'll call this a yes vote.
 
To AaronJ

To AaronJ

I guess a few headaches are even less than the general for the healthy persons. One visual appearance would not be considered a Migraine with aura, since I don't know an alive man without visual stuff sometimes in their life. So, I don't know if you have to vote in the YES group.

Best regards,
Ivo
 
That's very interesting. I never woud have gotten a connection between BAV and migraines. I do have migraine auras with minimal or no headaches. I have had them for about 30 years. During my last year or so before AVR I noticed that I had fewer and fewer of these. Since the surgery I have them more often.

Dan
 
I was just searching for info on this

I was just searching for info on this

I had my BAV/aortic replacement surgery last Monday, I'm home now and starting my recovery. It's not at bad as I expected it to be, at least pain wise. But, since I've been home I've had Aura/migraines, even had one in the hospital just after surgery. I figured it was from all the meds they were giving me, but I started researching on the net this morning and then happened to see this thread this morning here. Wow, just as I was suspecting, there is some relationship between the two. Yesterday I had to episodes, but didn't get pain after the aura went away. It lasts about 15 minutes usually, sometime longer. I still do get 'aftermath' the following day, but not severe. I used to have headaches right after the aura went away, even nausea, but that has lessened the older I get. (55 now) I wonder if there's a study we should all join?
Tom (BAV/aortic repl. July 21)
 
Hmmm...

Hmmm...

I have a BAV, not yet replaced. I didn't vote, in part because I'm not sure whether a "visual disturbance" is the same thing as an aura. I've had, twice in my life (separated by many years), something that an internist diagnosed as a "visual migraine" (visual disturbance without the headache or with minimal headachiness). One, many, many years ago, was post-anaesthesia and explainable on that basis. The other, more recently - ???

Pathfinder, this is interesting but/and I'd appreciate some clarification about your original post in this thread. I didn't see a source for the association of BAVs with visual migraines. I am concerned that any information we collect on this forum is purely anecdotal and tells us nothing about a statistical correlation. Many people in the general population have migraines and/or visual migraines. It would take a well-constructed research study to know whether there is a greater, and statistically significant, correlation of migraines or auras with BAV. Clearly we don't have the ability, within this forum, to collect meaningful data. (That's the other reason I'm not voting.)

That said, bring on the info...
 
To Leah

To Leah

Dear Leah,

I'm sorry I can't search again the studies I have found, because it's 00:30 East European time and I have to go to work early in the morning. But tomorrow, if I have the time, I'll try to find a study, which associate statisticaly significant thecongenital heart diseases with aura with/without headaches. Some suggestions say, that there is either the probability of genetic origin in some cases of endothelial alteration in the arteries, or a irritation of the endothelium by different mechanical forces (as it can be seen in some NON-BAV patients with aortic valve disease), who expirience the migraine aura without headaches close in time with their surgeries or periods of valve deterioration. Since in the Mitral valve prolapse, there are suggestions of magnesium defficiencies (causing migraines), the vibration-mechanical hypothesis (and sometimes genetical) may be more relevant to the BAV/TAV patients with stenosis/regurgitation/sclerosis type of valve disease.

Best regards,
Ivo :)
 
a part of a review

a part of a review

Hi, here i poste a fragment of the Guntherot's review of the BAV pathogenesis, published in the spring of 2008 and directly related to our discussion:

...There is a considerable body of evidence indicating that
specific hemodynamics can produce dilatation in all arteries,
including central, peripheral, and pulmonary, which is
not discussed in the practice guidelines.1 In 1954, Holman15
observed that even minor degrees of obstruction of a normal
peripheral artery could cause rough periodic turbulence and
that this, rather than the severity of the obstruction, produced
the subsequent dilatation by means of tissue fatigue.
Aortic regurgitation can produce the effect of mild stenosis
by increasing the systolic velocity as a compensation to
maintain forward cardiac output. Mild hemodynamic abnormalities
that cause vessel dilatation occur in the pulmonary
trunk16 with poststenotic dilatation, but dilatation of the
pulmonary artery is rarely associated with BAV or aortic
dilatation, although the aorta and the pulmonary artery develop
from the same tissue from the truncus arteriosus.
Dilatation of the pulmonary artery as well as the aorta is
characteristic of Marfan syndrome, with the affected tissue
influenced by the abnormal genetics of the vessel walls, but
not in patients with BAVs, countering the idea of an inherited
tissue weakness.
Bruns et al17 showed experimentally that a vibrator with
a frequency in the acoustic range (96 Hz) activating a thin
metal strip in the center of an elastic tube, without touching
the walls, could produce an ?aneurysm? of the tube at the
point downstream of maximal periodic vibration in a relatively
short time. They compared this with Holman?s15
results using blood vessels and with clinical situations of
mild stenosis of the aorta and pulmonary artery that were
accompanied by a thrill. They postulated that the aneurysm
represented structural fatigue due to the acoustic energy that
was ?much greater than one would expect from turbulence.?
17...

Ivo
 
Usually, aura without pain is called an "Ocular Migraine". Aura followed by pain is called a "Classic Migraine". Pain with no aura - non-classic. My husband (the BAV patient) has had many Ocular Migraines and at least one Classic Migraine. I (non BAV) have many, many, migraines of all three types. We are also both near-sighted.

It seems odd to me that so many regular medical medical conditions are trying to be linked to BAV. What percent of the population has migraines? What percent of the population are near-sighted? Is the percentage of BAV patients that have either of these that much greater? Are they going to begin giving echos to every near-sighted person? I really don't see how this is going to help diagnose anyone.

Can anyone "Splain" this to me?
 
To Cday

To Cday

I have already posted a thread, where I mentioned, that we should NOT associate anything with the bAV issue. In this case - the nearsightedness have been never related with the BAV disease, as it is associated with the MVP in some cases, or most of the systemic connective tissue disorders.

However - the migraine aura is already presented as an evidence in people with congenital heart disorders. In this thread it is prooved by some way, despite the fact, that may be here are voting mostly people WITH than withOUT migraine auras.

Ivo
 
For years I swore my husband hated vacations because he got migraines everytime we went on one after he reached 40. Well, he had his BAV replaced at 51 and never has had a migraine since. I think he just stressed himself getting ready for vacations and maybe caused his heart to work harder and caused the migraines. Just my theory.
 
I have already posted a thread, where I mentioned, that we should NOT associate anything with the bAV issue. In this case - the nearsightedness have been never related with the BAV disease, as it is associated with the MVP in some cases, or most of the systemic connective tissue disorders.

Ivo

I don't understand the wisdom of ignoring the common symptoms among people with BAV. Are you saying we should preclude anymore investigations of disease other than ocular migraine that have a higher than usual occurrence in people with BAV? Maybe you're saying the layman shouldn't be suspicious of a common link to systemic disease.
 
To AaronJ

To AaronJ

If you look at the study of Fedak and collegues "Vascular remodeling of patints with congenital bicuspid aortic valve", you will see, that there is evidence of systemic deficiency of connective tissue elements, like fibrillin-1. There are also evidenced deficiencies of eNOS. There are elevated productions of MMP's, triggering aortic dilatations. However, these findings are not sufficient to do the conclusion for the BAV disease at all! The reason... there are too much BAV persons in those studies, whos structural and molecular and histological statuses compare the general. Plus - there is trend of hereditary bAV in only 15-30% of the patients. What about the others? That's why, the investigators are targeting their researches in some other, more complicated mechanisms, which may explain the BAV in non-familial, or non-genetical BAV.

Best regards,
Ivo
 
Pathfinder,

I am not a medical professional nor do I play one on TV. I am not trying to be rude, but since there such a large number of people that have migraines it seems akin to linking BAV with drinking Dr Pepper.

There may be great value in the association -- on first glance it seemed to me that the research should be "How many Ocular Migraine sufferers are BAV?"

Truthfully, I am not going to read any hyper technical links -- I'm just an average person -- so I need the reasoning in layman's terms.

And I really would like to hear your answer. Thanks.
 
IVO, I read the long piece you posted several hours ago. It's very interesting - however, maybe I'm dense but I don't see anything in the post that points to a correlation with ocular migraines. Can you explain?

Aaron, I don't think the issue is that researchers shouldn't investigate symptoms or conditions that correlate with BAVs, but you need solid data to know that the condition does indeed correlate, i.e., that the occurrence is greater (in a statistically significant way) than in a control group without BAV.

Leah
 
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.

I don't have BAV; however, I had my first ophthalmic migraine (i.e., aura consistent with migraine without pain) just about 2 days post-op. Had several more in the hospital and asked my surgeon about them. He didn't seem to understand my description of the beautifully colored art-deco designs. However, my dad understood; he's had ophthalmic migraines and has seen several specialists.
A friend -- a retired professor at an optometry college in Memphis TN -- said these are due to disrupted blood flow. I 've googled that and ophthalmic/optical migraine and got hits on this. My friend's mom had MVR (St. Jude mechanical) in her early 70s and has visual disturbances as a result of the surgery.

Stands to reason that someone who's had OHS could be at higher risk of disrupted blood flow due to occasional a-fib or PVCs. Not sure if it's tied directly to one valve or another.
 
I had ocular migraines with increasing frequency leading up to my AVR eight years ago. Since my surgery, maybe one or two. I don't really miss them.
;)
Mark
 
I have had visual disturbances for ages. Usually in one eye or one side of my face. It will be there for 20 min. or so and then go away. Before my AVR I had a headache all the time. My PCP said it was because of lack of oxygen to the brain. Another doc said it was something else. Well after my AVR guess what else went away??? Yep, my headaches! YIPEEE! Those headaches hurt bad. Nothing helped, I took vicodin, torodol, nothing helped. Glad for those to be over.
 
I am unclear as to what this is actually. But I do know I had many instances prior to surgery over the years where my visision was defintely disturbed. TO the point I could not focus for periods of time. I could see, but there was no way I could actually focus on something. I don't recall if a headache came with it. I also know there were times that shooting streaks of light would happen around the time my focus would be a problem. I have not had these since my valve replacement.
 
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