Elevated Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Patients with Restless Legs Syndrome

Objective: There are studies in the literature that link restless legs syndrome with increasing cardiovascular disease risk. The reason for this was that increased sympathomimetic activation in restless legs syndrome causes tachycardia, hypertension, and autonomic instability. We intended to assess the cardiovascular disease risk in patients with restless legs syndrome using electrocardiogram parameters.

Methods: The present investigation compared the demographic characteristics, electrocardiogram variables, and lab results of 40 patients diagnosed with restless legs syndrome with 43 healthy controls.

Results: Restless legs syndrome patients had a higher frontal QRS-T angle than healthy control patients. Restless legs syndrome patients had lower hemoglobin, neutrophil, lymphocyte, basophil, albumin, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. There was a significant increase in eosinophil, platelet, C-reactive protein, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio, and C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio values in patients with restless legs syndrome. The frontal QRS-T angle is highly correlated with the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (P = .001). Similarly, monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio and C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio values were significantly correlated with frontal QRS-T (P = .011 and P = .24).

Conclusion: The fact that frontal QRS-T angle and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio were correlated in the restless legs syndrome group in our study suggests that the inflammatory process may have increased the risk of cardiovascular disease in restless legs syndrome patients. Our findings show that the frontal QRS-T angle is high in restless legs syndrome patients. We conclude that C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio, neutrophil-tolymphocyte ratio, and monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio are higher in the restless legs syndrome patient group and are related to cardiovascular disease risk.

Cite this article as: Abuş S, Kapıcı Y, Ayhan S, Arık A. Elevated cardiovascular disease risk in patients with restless legs syndrome. Alpha Psychiatry. 2023;24(3):95-99.