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High blood pressure may be linked to greater overall disability in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), although the rate at which disability progresses might be slower than in patients without hypertension, a retrospective study concludes. The research, involving a large number of MS patients, helps to clarify a rather confusing range of views on how factors related to heart and metabolic disorders influence this disease’s course.
Studies investigating risk factors for disability progression in MS tend to come to rather different conclusions, as do those exploring risk factors for heart or metabolic disease (like obesity or diabetes) in relation to MS. In terms of hypertension, some studies report that MS patients develop high blood pressure at the same rate as other people, while others find high blood pressure is unusual in people with MS.
To get a clearer picture of how blood pressure might affect MS, and to identify potential links between heart and metabolic disease and MS, scientists at Chaim Sheba Medical Center and Tel Aviv University examined the medical records of 2,396 patients, most with relapsing-remitting disease.
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