New CAMERA-2 Study Shows White Matter Hyperintensities in Patients With Migraine Do Not Predict Stroke or Dementia

Well thats a relief.
http://bionews-tx.com/news/2013/06/20/new-camera-2-study-shows-white-matter-hyperintensities-in-patients-with-migraine-do-not-predict-stroke-or-dementia/
A follow-up study to the CAMERA-1 (Cerebral Abnormalities in Migraine, an Epidemiological Risk Analysis) trial (2004), CAMERA-2, was performed to evaluate whether men or women with migraine had a higher incidence of brain lesions 9 years after their initial MRI.  This follow-up study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2012;308:1889-1897).  According to this new study, white matter hyperintensities tend to accumulate over time in patients with migraine.  Hyperintensities refers to bright white spots that show up on MRIs that indicate physiological changes in brain structure and in this case white matter (fiber tracts).
It is uncertain as to whether these physiological changes are relevant to current management of migraines.
The CAMERA-1 study (2004) looked at 295 men and women with migraine along with a control group that consisted of 140 age- and sex-matched patients.  These patients were asked to do a follow-up scan in 2009.  The purpose of the follow-up was to assess whether these individuals had an increase in brain lesions and whether their migraine frequency was linked to progression of these physiological changes or if these physiological changes were linked to any cognitive loss.  Out of the 295 migraine patients that participated in the first study, 203 participated in the second along with 83 out of 140 patients in the control group.
The follow-up study found that 112 out of 145 women with migraine had an increase in white matter hyperintensities compared with 33 out of 55 women in the control group, however, the increase in hyperintensities did not effect cognition.  No statistical difference was found in other MRI-measured brain parameters.  This includes infratentorial (cerebellum) hyperintensities or new posterior blood vessel necrosis.  No relationship was found between frequency of migraine and lesion progression.  They also reported that there was no link between migraine and progression of any MRI-measured lesions in men.