title: Nocturnal systolic blood pressure is increased in restless legs syndrome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a frequent sensorimotor disorder characterized by an urge to move the legs, with symptoms appearing during the night and disturbing nocturnal sleep. There is a growing body of evidence that RLS correlates with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that patients with RLS have higher blood pressure (BP) during the night than people without RLS.
  
  
  METHODS
  We have analyzed polysomnographic (PSG) recordings of 30 patients with RLS and 27 subjects without the sleep disorder. During PSG, beat-to-beat BP measurement was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with RLS have higher nocturnal and sleep-time systolic blood pressure compared to controls (124.4 vs. 116.5 mmHg, p < 0.05; 123.5 vs. 116.1 mmHg, p < 0.05). There was no noticeable dip in the values of nocturnal systolic pressure of patients with RLS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results support the hypothesis that RLS and hypertension are linked. Thus, we believe patients with RLS require close observation with regard to cardiovascular risk factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Adults' Neurology, Medical University of Gdansk, Debinki 7, 80-210, Gdansk, Poland. msiem@wp.pl.
authors.forename: Mariusz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sieminski
authors.affiliation: Vitalmed Helsinki Sleep Clinic, Valimotie 21, 00380, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Markku
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Partinen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017286:Polysomnography; D012016:Reference Values; D012148:Restless Legs Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013223:Statistics as Topic
keywords: Blood pressure; Hypertension; Restless legs syndrome