Influence of a 12-week exercise training intervention on retinal vessel diameters and attack frequency in migraine patients

Background: Migraine is a neurological disease which increases cardiovascular risk. Aerobic exercise training beneficially affects cardiovascular risk factors. Retinal vessel analysis enables pre-clinical cardiovascular risk screening. Impaired cardiovascular functioning can be improved by exercise training. Effect of different exercise intensity modes in patients suffering from migraine has not been studied yet.Methods: 19 migraineurs participated in testing procedures which included Static Vessel Analysis to obtain baseline arteriolar-to-venular ratio (AVR) and a maximum exertion test on the treadmill which was a combination of increment with ramp-like protocols to determine various fitness parameters. Subsequently, they were randomly assigned to either high intensity interval training (HIT), moderate, continuous training (MCT) or control group (CON). Intervention groups completed a 12 week running program. HIT followed a 4x4 interval program alternating between 90% and 70% HRmax while MCT ran at 70% HRmax for 45 minutes. CON received no exercise intervention. All patients recorded migraine frequency, duration and intensity.Results: Repeated measures analyses of variances (rANOVA) revealed a large and significant group x time interaction for (p=0.03, np²=0.33). Analysis of covariance for baseline-adjustment made results more prominent (ANCOVA; p=0.02; np²=0.40). A significant time-effect (p=0.001) was observed. Migraine attacks decreased in the intervention groups by 5.4 days per month and the attack duration and intensity diminished as well.Conclusion: Aerobic exercise training beneficially affects microvascular parameters and reduces migraine attack frequency in migraineurs. High exercise intensities are safe for migraineurs to perform and seem to have a larger impact on AVR than MCT. Thus, exercise should be considered as treatment method for migraineurs.