Response by van Os and Wermer to Letter Regarding Article, “Migraine and Cerebrovascular Atherosclerosis in Patients With Ischemic Stroke”

With great interest, we have read the letter of Madsen and Chaturvedi which addresses several important topics.1 First, about sex-specific associations between migraine and atherosclerosis, the association between migraine and ischemic stroke is indeed much stronger in women. Unfortunately, our migraine group was relatively small (29 women and 24 men) leaving little power for subgroup analysis. When we do stratify for sex, the associations between characteristics of atherosclerosis and migraine do not change except that (any sign of) extracranial atherosclerosis might be less prevalent in women with migraine …