Red Cell Distribution Width in Patients with Migraine

Background: Migraine is an inflammatory condition with high prevalence. Approximately 18% of women and 6% of men suffer from Migraine. It classified into two groups based on aura manifestations. Aura characterized by any combination of visual, hemisensory, or language abnormalities. Although not completely elucidated, one possible explanation for its cause may be the reduction of blood flow of the brain’s arteries. In previous studies, it has been shown that migraine is related to increased hemoglobin level and also it has been reported that reduction of the erythrocyte count can be a curative treatment option for this disorder. In this study, we aim to find out the relationship between migraine and red cell distribution width (RDW) in Isfahan, Iran. Methods: 100 patients with migraine who were reffered to specialized clinics Al-Zahra hospital between 2015-2016 and age and sex-matched 100 control subjects enrolled in this study. Disease diagnosis was confirmed by a neurologist. Fasting venous blood samples were taken from subjects for performing RDW, CBC, ferritin, iron and TIBC tests. In order to assess the severity of migraine, HIT6 questionaire was considered. Results: There were 100 patients with a median age of 36 years (range 18-50). 22% were male and 78% were female. Data analysis didn’t show any relationship between migraine severity and RDW. Also, RDW didn’t have any relationship with the type of migraine (with aura or without aura).Conclusion: This study could not reveal any significant association between RDW and migraine. Observing high RDW in both case and control group, brings us to the hypothesis of high prevalence of iron deficiency in our country. According to the results,low ferritin level had a relationship with increased severity of migraine. further investigations into underlying mechanisms of anemia and iron metabolism in migraine are warranted.

کلیدواژه ها:

migraine ، aura ، RDW ، anemia