Multifocal brain haemorrhage associated with migraine and medication abuse

Although ischemic stroke is a well known complication of migraine, cerebral hemorrhage has been uncommonly reported. We present the case of a 56-year-old woman with a long history of headache and abuse of ergotamine and antiinflamatory drugs who was admitted for generalized seizures, right hemiparesis and coma. An early brain CT scan showed multiple cortico-subcortical hemorrhages localized amongst others on right frontal, left parietal, and posterior left temporo parietal regions. In the previous two years she had increased the doses on medications containing 1 mg of ergotamine and 500 mg of dipirone consuming two to six tablets a day, and 500 to 1,500 mg of aspirin a day too. Although she exceeded the maximum ergot cumulative doses allowed of 10 mg per week, it cannot be considered a typical nor a pure manifestation of ergotism. When other possible causes of stroke were excluded, the association of migraine with the protracted vasoconstriction of ergotamine, able per se to damage the capillary endothelium, and an altered local hemostasis induced by aspirin remained as the most probable mechanism of brain bleeding. After discharge she had no motor sequelae and she could return to her usual work. A neuropsychological assessment done four months later showed subclinical cognitive deficits depending on an abnormal frontal functioning. This life-threatening and potentially disabling complication must stress to physicians about the risks of ergotamine plus aspirin abuse, drawing their efforts to prevent, to recognize and to control the propensity to self medication of some patients with daily headaches.