BRUSSELS, April 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Results from a two-year
retrospective cohort study presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of
the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), Hawaii, U.S., showed that
patients were significantly more likely to develop cardiovascular
(CV) conditions, including hypertension, cardiac dysrhythmias and
chronic ischemic heart diseases after an initial diagnosis of RLS,
as compared to controls without RLS.
“These findings suggest a significant association between a
diagnosis of RLS and subsequent records of major cardiovascular
conditions, and build on previous evidence suggesting that RLS may
be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The findings confirm
the need for early diagnosis of RLS so that patients can be
monitored for subsequent development of serious cardiovascular
events,” commented study author, Dr. Florent Richy, Head of Global
Epidemiology, UCB and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the
University of Liege, Belgium.
The two year retrospective cohort study matched the U.S. medical
records of 3,485 RLS patients to those of 3,485 healthy controls.
Mean age was 55 years and female/male ratio was 2.34. The study
investigated the risk of major CV risk events among patients
diagnosed with RLS. The most frequent CV diagnoses observed
were hypertension (48%), cardiac dysrhythmias (9.3%), chronic
ischemic heart diseases (8.5%), occlusion and stenosis of cerebral
arteries (2.81%), cardiomegaly (2.50%), and hypertensive heart
disease (2.43%).
During this two-year observation period, RLS patients had a 12%
greater risk of developing any CV event compared to healthy
controls (p<0.01). The relative risk (95% CI) for CV events by
category were, in decreasing order: other forms (non-ischemic) of
cardiovascular diseases, 1.33 (1.20; 1.47); cerebrovascular
diseases, 1.31 (1.12; 1.53); disease of the pulmonary circulation,
1.28 (0.86; 1.92); ischemic heart diseases, 1.20 (1.06- 1.35);
diseases of the arteri
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