Cecilia Hvitfeldt Fuglsang Nielsen who defended her PhD dissertation today has conducted four studies on migraine and the risk of premature myocardial infarction and stroke.

Evidence has accumulated during the last ~45 years revealing migraine as a risk factor for myocardial infarction and stroke. Migraine, a primary headache disorder, affects 15% of the population. As the burden of migraine is large among young adults, the impact of migraine on the risk of premature cardiovascular disease may be of particular importance. However, little is known about how migraine affects cardiovascular risk in the presence of other known cardiovascular risk factors.

With this thesis, containing four registry-based Danish studies, we describe the risk of premature myocardial infarction and stroke associated with migraine among men and women separately, among women with and without pregnancy-induced hypertension and gestational diabetes, and among persons with type 2 diabetes.

The summary is written by the PhD student.