Katsanos AH, Kosmidou M, Konitsiotis S, Tsivgoulis G, Fiolaki A, Kyritsis AP, Giannopoulos S. Restless legs syndrome and cerebrovascular/cardiovascular events: Systematic review and meta-analysis.
Acta Neurol Scand 2018;
137:142-148. [PMID:
28948600 DOI:
10.1111/ane.12848]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/11/2017] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the proposed association of restless legs syndrome (RLS) with cerebrovascular/cardiovascular outcomes.
METHODS
We calculated the corresponding odds ratios on the prevalence of cerebrovascular/cardiovascular risk factors and standardized mean differences on the reported mean age at baseline between RLS patients and controls. We also calculated the corresponding risk ratios and adjusted for potential confounders hazard ratios (HRsadjusted ) on the reported outcomes of interest between RLS patients and controls.
RESULTS
We identified 8 eligible studies (644 506 patients, mean age: 60.2 years, 36.2% males; 3.3% with RLS). RLS patients were found to have significantly higher prevalence of hypertension (P = .002), diabetes (P = .003) and hyperlipidemia (P = .010) compared to controls. In the unadjusted analyses of prospective observational studies, RLS patients were found to have significantly higher risk for cerebrovascular ischaemia (P = .01) and all-cause mortality (P = .04) compared to controls during follow-up, while in the adjusted for potential confounders analyses RLS patients were only found to have a higher risk of all-cause mortality (HR adjusted=1.52, 95% CI: 1.17-1.97, P = .002).
CONCLUSIONS
The present report does not provide evidence for an increased risk of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular events in RLS patients, which highlights the vast presence of confounding factors.
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