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Restless leg syndrome linked to heart disease

Written by: David Castillo on April 8th, 2011

Restless leg syndrome linked to heart disease | read this item

A recent study found that restless legs syndrome is linked to structural cardiovascular disorders. The syndrome, which is characterized mainly by frequent leg movements while sleeping, elevates the risk of severe left ventricular hypertrophy, explains Mayo Clinic Dr. Arshad A. Jahangir and his fellow researchers while reporting during a meeting by the American College of Cardiology.

The link is backed up by strong evidence, although there are still questions regarding whether it is treatable or causal. Thus, Jahangir advices his fellows to exercise caution while reporting on the retrospective results during a press conference.

Jahangir says that “we don’t know whether restless leg syndrome – what we are calling frequent leg movement disorder – is a risk factor for hypertrophy,” explaining further that “if it is, there are very effective treatments for this frequent leg movement disorder but whether there is an effect on consequences in terms of hypertrophy we don’t know.”

Source: MedPageToday