Family Aggregation Of Migraine And Clinical Features

Objective:It is well established that migraine aggregates within families. There are studies suggest that some proband clinical characteristics (e.g., age at onset, headache severity) potentially reflect an individual’s familial vulnerability. Our aim was to compare the clinical characteristics in migraineurs with and without a positive family history for migraine and to examine the association between the proband’s clinical features and the frequency of positive family history for migraine.Methods:1.Study Subjects:72 migraine patients from December,2013 to January,2015 in Shandong Provincial Hospital were chosen and divided into two subgroups according migraine family history. The patients met the diagnostic criteria.Cases were excluded if they had other primary headaches or secondary headaches2.Measures:The subjects were interviewed in detail including age, disease duration, age at migraine onset, migraine severity (visual pain scale), frequency of headache, duration of each attack, aura, unilateral pain, pulsate pain, family history of migraine, family members and other factors. The results were recorded on the questionnaire.3.Statistical analysis:All statistical analyses were carried out with the SPSS package(version 19.0). Clinical features of the patients were compared between the two subgroups. Categorical data were compared by a chi-square test and quantitative data were compared by a t-test. Multi-factors logistic regression analysis was performed to study the possible risk factors of family history of migraine.Results:1. Of the 72 migraine patients, 37(51.4%) reported that at least one of her first-degree relatives had a history of migraine.2. In comparison with negative family history of migraine subgroup, there were no significant differences in age(P=0.598), gender(P=0.675), disease duration (P=0.419), aura(P=0.669), headache severity (P=0.837), frequency of attack (P=0.465), concomitant symptoms (P=0.081), unilateral pain(P=0.353), pulsate pain(P=0.963). There were significant differences in age at disease onset(P=0.023) and duration of attack(P=0.041) between the two subgroups. Compared to negative family history of migraine subgroup, early age at disease onset (< 16 years) (48.6% vs 22.9%, P< 0.05), long duration of attack (≥24 hours) (35.1% vs 14.3%, P<0.05)。3. Multi-factors logistic regression analysis identified that it is probands with early age at disease onset (RR=2.986,95% CI,1.625-5.525)、long duration of attack (RR=2.320,95% CI,1.234-4.485), whose fist-degree families have a higher risk to get migraine (P<0.05)。Conclusion:1.Migraineurs with positive family history of migraine have earlier onset of migraine and longer duration of attack.2. Early age at disease onset, long duration of attack are associated with higher levels of family aggregation.