A new study has suggested restless legs syndrome may be linked to structural heart problems. The syndrome is characterized by frequent leg movements during sleep. Arshad A. Jahangir, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., and colleagues reported at the American College of Cardiology meeting that people with more than 35 bursts of leg movement per hour while sleeping are more likely to suffer from severe left ventricular hypertrophy.
While presenting the findings of the study at a press conference, Jehangir said that though the association was strong, it remains to be seen that whether it is causal or treatable. "We don't know whether restless leg syndrome -- what we are calling frequent leg movement disorder -- is a risk factor for hypertrophy," he told MedPage Today. "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."
The moderator of the press conference William Zoghbi, MD, of Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center in Houston, agreed that more studies are needed to make treatment decisions based on a possible link. "That has to be validated prospectively," he said in an interview.
Zoghbi, who is vice-president of the ACC, remarked that the best thing currently would be just awareness. "I would not be able to recommend treating hypertrophy in someone without hypertension or any other cause of hypertrophy," he told MedPage Today. "If the restless leg syndrome is bothering the individual, certainly check with a neurologist to see if there is any underlying cause because there can be other metabolic causes for that."
