DURHAM, N.C., July 20 (UPI) -- Migraine patients who are candidates for the class of drugs called triptans do not require cardiac stress tests, Duke University researchers said.
Concerns have been raised about cardiac disease risk from triptans such as Imitrex and Zomig, which clinicians prescribe to treat patients with severe migraines. Studies have shown triptans can constrict blood vessels in the heart, researchers said.
Duke scientists said patients with signs of cardiac disease should not use triptans, but the risk in patients without symptoms of cardiac disease is low enough that they do not need to be evaluated with cardiac stress tests to qualify for the drugs.
Duke researchers created a virtual clinical trial assessing the risks and benefits of triptans with population data from previous migraine studies and assigned virtual patients to treatment groups in which they either all received triptans, only received triptans if qualified by stress tests, or did not receive triptans.
They found the number of heart attacks and cardiovascular deaths were similar for each group, but the group in which all received triptans had 70 percent fewer migraines than the non-triptans group.
