Epidemiological and clinical aspects of migraine in users of combined oral contraceptives.

Background: Migraine was assessed in users of combined oral contraceptives (COCs).

Study Design: This study had a cross-sectional design. Women with headaches were evaluated according to International Headache Society criteria and subsequently allocated to a "migraine" or "non-migraine" group.

Maternal wave reflections and arterial stiffness in normal pregnancy as assessed by applanation tonometry.

Normal pregnancy is associated with profound alterations in the maternal cardiovascular system. The aim of the present study was to assess noninvasively, using applanation tonometry, the maternal central aortic blood pressures (BP), effects of wave reflection and arterial stiffness (aortic and brachial pulse wave velocity) in normal pregnancy. This was a cross sectional study including 193 women with normal singleton pregnancies at 11 to 41 weeks of gestation and 23 nonpregnant controls, matched for age and height.